Keep Going

Hi - In no way do I think that I'm even close to understanding the suffering that Paul went through in his missionary service (2 Corinthians 11:23-27); but maybe just in some tiny way I can empathize with the daily pressure he had in his concern for the churches (v.28)... Especially the Refuge Church in Cucuta is so small and weak that sometimes I wonder if we should even keep its doors open?

...Sometimes I have this feeling like there aren't too many people who care about this church anyway, and if there were ever an assembly that has an insane turn over rate it would be this one (I mean immigrants by definition are transitory)... I often blame myself for being a bad church planter or spreading myself too thin or just not being intentional or consistent enough to really build up the Cucuta congregation in the way that I should... I'm not even kidding that last week I was like, "maybe we should just call it quits" when I was thinking of my own discouragement and the discouragement of some of the church's members as well as the economic burden of paying rent, and my inability to just be there physically as much as I would like, as my family and I are living across the border trying to start a new church in San Cristobal.

Especially my friend Encarnacion - his sharing of the gospel and discipling of street vendors and street musicians is exactly what Jesus recognizes as being valuable in his Kingdom; but the fact that the people he shares the gospel with eventually make it into our meetings with all of their baggage and inability to contribute very much (as well as the reality that Encarnacion's wife was going to another church and his 30 something year old son is so irresponsible), made me tell him to work a little more on his family life first, and then we could think more about the church later...

In the middle of all this I traveled out to Pereira, Colombia where an earthquake struck fairly hard on August 10th (but only killed 5% as many people as the earthquake that hit La Guaira, Venezuela); and I was especially impressed with one family that my friends and I got to accompany in the midst of their pain as they are starting to pick up the pieces from everything that was shattered around them.

Their apartment building used to look like this:

But now it looks like this:

And so for about 3 hours each day and for 3 days straight, my friends and I would go and sit with them and listen to them as we got to know each other and we would eat together and sing songs and share different stories from the Bible.

What was so amazing in their description of everything that took place when their apartment caved in on that terrible day, was that they would always conclude their account of the tragedy with the phrase, "but thanks to God we all made it out alive"...

What impressed me was that a family that pretty much lost every material thing they owned could still find a way to thank God...

But going back to Cucuta, Encarnacion sent me this picture the other day, with his wife who was there worshipping with him at Refuge Church; along with Camilo, who is a Colombian soldier that I hadn't heard anything about for quite a while...

It seems so small and insignificant, but it's the lives of a few friends like these that makes me want to keep going. Here in San Cristobal we're getting closer to starting our Sunday morning gatherings with (hopefully) some friends from the more elite class of Venezuela (even though there's no such distinction in God's Kingdom), and so that's exciting...

Just a couple weeks ago we were traveling back to South America from the States and we met with Dr. Nelson Baez in Miami so that he could give Alejandra an ultrasound to see the newest member of the Killins family! ...Nelson is our doctor here in San Cristobal, but he was going to be in Miami as we were traveling back, so we made sure to meet up with him along the way... We're all friends with Gino the Italian restaurant owner, and so we made sure to buy Gino a cool racing cap after our appointment.

We still don't know the gender of Jackson's sibling - but just like we did a few years ago in our anticipation of our first baby - we hope to have a gender reveal party at Gino's Mil Miglia restaurant in about a month to get our friends together and share the gospel.

Back in Bogota, the main leader of the Park Way church lost his job recently (his field is one that is greatly affected by AI), but even there - I know that he hasn't given up with what matters most... In fact, he along with my friends Duvan and Maria Ruth were actually the ones who most eagerly and lovingly sacrificed their comfort and time to share their lives with the victims of the earthquake... It's an honor and a joy for me to work with people like them.

It was also an honor and a joy for me to meet up with and work with these friends as well recently:

-Sam Missionary Profile:

let's keep Water free

Hello - One of the coolest ladies I met this last Sunday as I helped out in the relief efforts from Venezuela's devastating earthquake was a woman named Fluvia

She was living by herself in Catia La Mar when the earthquake struck, and even though she got out of her house unscathed - she's been homeless ever since. I met her at a tent church service, and after the meeting was over I asked her if a couple friends and I could go see where she's staying.

After taking her out for lunch,

she took us to a university close by that serves as her temporary home, along with a few other thousand displaced people

In general, I like to remember Jesus through the breaking of bread every Sunday - but the tent church service we were at didn't have comunion that morning, and both of the Sundays before that I was denied taking part in the Lord's Supper because of some weird gatekeeping practice I witnessed at a few assemblies

There were some more believers that were living there in the shelter along with Fluvia, and so after praising God together and sharing some testimonies and a short message - we took part in the Lord's Supper, as the family in Christ that we are

When our impromptu meeting ended - Fluvia gave us some cold water which wasn't quite as refreshing as taking part in the Lord's Supper - but it was still very hydrating and perfect nonetheless

Water is so vital, and it was wonderful to see how the United States made a big effort to make sure our dear Venezuelan friends who have suffered so much could at least have clean running water to use and drink

In a spiritual sense, it is extremely important that we always make sure that Jesus - the ultimate living water - is always offered for free

-Sam and Alejandra Killins Missionary Profile

Babies and Journalists (Update from Venezuela)

Hello - As Jesus was heading to the cross, the evangelist Luke reports that a lot of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him... Luke then reports that at that moment, 'Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”' (Luke 23:27-31). ... As many countries in the (Western) world are watching their birthrates fall, I wonder if this is one of those prophecies that is starting to come true? ...According to this graph from Visual Capitalist:

Venezuela seemes to have exactly the right birth replacement rate to keep the population as is (excluding, of course, the 25% displacement rate); but it is true that sometimes I think about everything that Venezuela has (and is) going through, and it's like - man, I know that people consider that stuff whenever they're thinking about having kids, so I could understand why the birthrate is falling... What's weird though, is that it isn't falling in Venezuela or in many other poor African nations, but it is rather, in some of the richest and healthiest ones! ...What Jesus was getting at however, as he approached the climax of his mission, is that if the world at that time had the privilege of hosting the very Lord of all Creation, and yet that's the way we treated him - the truest mourning and wailing will happen when God's judgement will come, and humanity itself will wish we didn't even exist. ...Notwithstanding, a passage that I always think about whenever disaster strikes is at the beginning of Luke 13, when Jesus clarifies that a couple specific tragedies that happened back in his day weren't a result of any specific people being any worse sinners than others (v.1-5)... Instead, maybe earthquakes and wars and economic depressions can serve as warning signs to make us repent; as we imagine a greater calamity to come... So what do we do in the meantime? Well, we share the good news (Matt 28:16-20, Mark 16:14-18, Luke 24:44-49, John 20:19-23). And we also do good to all people, especially to those of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10).

...So yesterday I spent about 5 hours trying to get permission to travel to the interior of Venezuela to help any way I could, but for now I was denied access... As I was waiting for my interview, it was certainly interesting to talk with journalists from Caracol and NPR, and realize that in many ways we share a similar profession (as essentially Alejandra and I are journalists of Jesus) - just like they report history as well... For now, I'm going to try to get a few things in order, and see if in about a week the Venezuelan authorities will re-evaluate my case. In the meantime, Alejandra's and my offer still stands for anyone reading this email, to stay at our apartment in San Cristobal for a few days, as you may want to join us in sharing the gospel or in doing good to all people (especially if you can find a way to get further into Venezuela than I can)...

Also, if you would like to help our church in Duitama (located in Boyaca, Colombia which is lot easier to get to), you are also welcome to spend a few nights in our apartment there, which is located directly below our meeting room

The point is that journalists in general just want to get the story out there, and however we can help each other accomplish that - we should! (let's just make sure we get the story straight)... I for one, know from experience all around the world, that whenever Christians open up their home for me to lay my head, it really means a lot.

-Sam Killins Missionary Profile: ---------------------------------------- Very few passages talk about how God is a midwife who opens the womb (Isaiah 66:7-9) or how God is like a mother who nurses her children who are looking to be comforted (Isaiah 66:13; 49:15). Doulos (doula) means servant or slave in Greek, and when we're talking about brothers and sisters in the faith, I was so happy to accompany them to go through one of the most important transitions in life. To Lina, David, and Emet (a girl), it was a privilege to give them the best of me for a couple of months, making an extensive accompaniment a couple weeks before and after the birth of their baby girl. On the day of the labor, I spent the night going back and forth from their house to mine to be able to attend the needs of my own family and also theirs. With a wonderful work team, they prepared themselves for months to be able to receive their baby at home, and by the grace of God, everything was a success. This is just a very little example of how we can serve our family in Christ, even more on the areas where we are new. We can always point others to Jesus.

-Alejandra Killins Missionary Profile: -------------------------------------- Recently I've been talking with my friend and colleague Juan Carlos Corredor to see if the name of the church that Alejandra and our friends and I want to start in San Cristobal, Venezuela could be called Levantemonos y Edifiquemos (Rise Up and Build)...

...While 3 of the churches Alejandra and a bunch of other friends and I started in Colombia are called Refugio (Refuge), the name of our close allies Levantemonos y Edifiquemos has a more appropriate connotation for what the Lord has laid on our hearts to accomplish in Venezuela... The name "Refuge" carries a connotation of being a place where sinners can run to and find protection (think: the cities of refuge in Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua where someone who committed involuntary manslaughter could run and find refuge in until the high priest died); and we also liked the idea and fact that many Venezuelan immigrants were finding their way into our churches in which they were welcomed and valued and cared for... At this time in Venezuela though, definitely the idea of building up and edifying a Christ honoring church within the rubble, is the job we have before us (think: Nehemiah). -Sam Killins Missionary Profile: