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: