Prayer

Simple and straight forward: WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS

Some of you have been praying for the Abegg family for years. Thank you…a true, from the bottom of the heart, THANK YOU! We receive support in numerous ways including monthly monetary donations, emotional support through letters, phone calls or e-mails, and spiritual support through prayer and intercession. Right now I want to emphasize the importance of these prayers and ask each of you to pray and petition the Lord in a few specific ways:

For the MSO (Miami Service Office) where we serve with LAM:

• Software transition and the finance department: The MSO is responsible for receiving and receipting all gifts for all missionaries as well as any projects they or their associate ministry are doing. On any given month one family may receive 20 to 50 gifts of varying amounts. Multiply this by 100 and you have only the missionary part of the equation without considering the hundreds of associate ministries we serve. This must all be sent internationally and again, receipted. The software we were using has been on it’s last legs, so a month ago we began the training and supposedly “seamless” transition. Unfortunately the seam has come unraveled in Grand Canyon proportions essentially paralyzing that department and taxing the IT department in unprecedented ways. Yet even in this, God provided. By His design, Rob Johnson was visiting from Phoenix for a few days, and one of his many expertise is in assisting with problematic software transitions. He came for a few days but stayed a month. We are still not fully out of the woods, but we can see daylight. Please pray and intercede for the transition process to come to completion and the ability for the finance department to then catch up on all receipts (if you’ve given toward our account recently and have not received a receipt, please know that it will be generated and sent out soon).

• Helping Missionaries stay on the field: The downturn in the economy has hit nearly everyone hard, but missionaries have had an especially difficult time as partnering families or churches face their own struggles and need to lower their support. This however becomes an extremely problematic situation when a faithfully serving missionary family must contemplate returning home for lack of support. In order to prevent this we at the MSO are helping missionaries communicate better through websites, social networking sites and even Youtube. Yet the software problems I mentioned above have slowed these efforts in many ways. Please pray and intercede for the missionaries in general (ourselves included) as they seek to keep their support at a level that will keep them on the field. Also pray that the work of those at the MSO would be fruitful in our attempts to assist them.

For the Abegg Family:

• We recently received news that one of our main supporting churches is going through the tough times I described above resulting in lowering our support by about $400/month. We fully understand their reasons and know it was a difficult decision to make. We are praying for all of our supporters, be they families, individuals or churches and appreciate immensely the sacrificial giving in allowing us to serve the many Latin ministries we are involved with. Right now we realistically need to replace that support as well as others who have had to lower or discontinue their gifts over the past year. Please pray and intercede for supporters and churches that are suffering financially, and for others to “step into the gap” and help us cover the monthly needs in order to keep serving the church throughout Latin America. If you would like to consider partnering with us you can easily do so through online donations or a printable donation form.

Link to a Printable Donation Form. (click link for mail in donation form)

Link to Online Donation page (click link for online credit/debit card

Thank you for your prayers. We know the Lord will answer and we pray He blesses you as well.

"On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many."

2 Corinthians 1:10-12

Relationships (It's What We Do)

Over the past six months of overseeing the ministries department at Latin America Mission I’ve come to appreciate the concept of partnerships and real relationships. LAM does not have our own projects on the field but rather we rely on “partnerships” with the Latin Church by strategically placing missionaries under and along side existing, national Latin ministries. This approach is culturally and linguistically difficult in many ways, but enters into a relationship of trust. Obviously these partnerships are of extreme importance for the care of the missionaries, but also for the health, growth and expansion of the Gospel in Latin America. As in the Church, poor relationships and a lack of care poorly reflect the Gospel on the mission field as well, whereas strong, trusting, Christ centered and caring relationships better reflect and personify the Gospel message.

The LAM ministries department is responsible for approximately 100 missionary units (families or singles) and their partnerships or “ministry covenants” with the ministries they serve, be that a children’s home in Costa Rica such as Roble Alto, a seminary in Colombia such as the Biblical Theological Seminary or a Church Planting and pastoral care ministry in Mexico. But as you know, a true relationship is not maintained through a business contract, but regular communication, heartfelt involvement and tangible expressions of care. As I stepped into the ministries department six months ago I was tempted to “just get the paperwork done” and assume in a staunch, business like manner that the partnership was then in place. But a signed document does not a friend make. Relationship building takes time, energy and involvement. It’s slow going, but very much worth it. Please pray for me, the ministries department and the LAM as we seek to better serve those that we have a history of partnership with and those we are getting to know on the road to new partnerships. This is a time of change with the mission, a time of diving in deeper with those we serve along side of throughout Latin America. It’s an exciting time. I’ll share more of this in future entries, but for now I ask you and thank you for your prayers.

God bless!

LAM Missionaries- Baptisms and Funerals

With my position in the Ministries Department and LAM I have the priviledge to corespond with our Latin partner ministries as well as all of our missionaries, which means I get to here the "Good News" (AKA the Gospel) at work. Here's another example of what LAM missionaries are doing:

From: Mirna Sotomayor y Diana Garrett

I´m racking my brain in the midst of all the noise to write down the words of the Costa Rican national anthem. Beside me is an 11 year old boy who is looking at me with nervous intensity. "Are you sure you want to do this?", I ask. "Yes. For my mother´s sake," he answers, and controls a sob.It was his mother´s funeral. Carlos is the only child of a single mother who just died of cancer the day before. His mother was Costa Rican by birth, and he wanted to honour her. So that is how his aunt, Mirna, Carlos and I sang the Costa Rican national anthem at a Mexican funeral yesterday. I was the only one who really knew it, and I was thanking the Lord for my Costa Rican upbringing.

It seemed hard to believe that just one week ago, on Sunday, Mirna and I baptised another of Carlos´s aunts in the beautiful Tuxpan ocean. Lupe received Jesus, along with her two sisters as a result of the team from Costa Rica that came during Holy Week. One of the team members from Costa Rica is a cousin of theirs and the Lord used the relationship to bring Jesus into their lives. Lupe asked to be baptised last Sunday because she was going to be operated on, also because of cancer, on Friday. She had the surgery on Friday and on Saturday her sister passed away, leaving their third sister, Marta, holding the fort.

Just before we stood up to sing the anthem, Mirna took advantage to share the Gospel to the extended family, many of whom were hearing the Good News for the first time. We were a handful of evangelical Christians that surrounded this family in their distress, and helped them set their hope in their newly found faith. We beg your prayers for the Mora family during this very difficult time, as Lupe is recuperating from surgery and metastasis of cancer to other organs in her body, as the grandmother is ill in a home, and as young Carlos hits his teenage years without his mother. And please don´t forget to pray for Marta, her husband and two children who have been buffetted on all sides, and seek to follow the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers and support for me as I provide support for others!

A quick update on the Abeggs.

Claudia to Costa Rica and Kevin as Mr. Mom (pray for the kids!)
This coming Sunday Claudia will be flying to Costa Rica for some “Dental Tourism”. She will be in San Jose through Thursday in order to get four crowns as well as some other work. Some have asked “Why Costa Rica?”. The answer is that even though we have to pay for airlines, room and board, we will still come out minimally $2000. ahead instead of having the work done here in the States. That’s $2000 we don’t have to come up with or can be used in other ways. Thankfully LAM has numerous missionaries, ministry partners and friends there to help if needed, and she may even be able to meet up with a short term team from Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church on Sunday before she’s had her work done. Please keep her in your prayers as daddy and the boys won’t be there to comfort and care for her in the evenings. Also keep Kevin, Jeremy and Nicholas in your prayers as we’ll be having a guy’s week on our own. Daddy will be attempting to fill mommy’s amazing role of home school teacher, primary guidance councilor and overall house manager.

Rotating Jobs at Latin America Mission
This week in between responding to calls/emails from missionaries and various Chilean pastors or ministries realing from the EQ, I’m also in the process of slowly moving offices. As you know my primary job at the LAM “Cuba desk” has been expanded to the "Ministries Department" and got a jump start with my Tijuana trip last month. Since then my inbox has exploded with correspondence from LAM missionaries and our ministry partners. My primary responsibility at this point is to maintain and develop the depth LAM’s relationships with our partner ministries. A few weeks ago (prior to the Chile EQ blogs) I included a couple of entries on some of these ministries and will continue to do so in the future in the hopes of sharing some of the international (and eternal) good news you don’t usually get to hear on your evening news.

That’s probably one of the things I like best about my current position. I get a spectacular vantage point for what God is doing throughout Latin America through Latin ministries in general and missionaries associated with the LAM. God is doing some exciting things especially in the area of equipping Latinos for ministry both in their own countries as well as abroad. LAM is involved with numerous seminaries, Bible schools and training programs throughout Central and South America as well as entire international denominations that take very seriously the need to have well equipped pastors, teachers and trainers in order to have well equipped healthy churches ministering to entire populations in need of the Gospel. Please keep these ministries in your prayers, and I personally ask for your prayers to manage well the responsibilities and quantity of work the Lord has placed before me.

As you know, this is a “temporary assignment” until we find the right person to fill this position. Similar to when LAM was seeking a new president and the Lord finally brought Steve Johnson to us, I ask you to be praying for the Lord to bring the right person to fill this position. In the mean time I ask for your prayers as I survey the Ministries department, consider changes with the LAM guidance team and seek the Lord for how He would have us position this branch of the ministry for the future. Once the Lord does provide the right person for this I will be able to step back into the role I had for a few weeks of developing the North American Ministries (NAM) department of LAM, something that is very close to my heart as well.

In the midst of what I could perceive as a detour on the road to the NAM work I desire to do, I see the Lord once again educating me. The NAM responsibilities will essentially be as a “match maker” or in essence “marriage counselor” assisting the North American churches to develop and deepen their relationships with their missionaries as well as the ministry partners they are working with in the field. How better to get to know the ins and outs of this than to first do similar work between these very missionaries and their Latin ministry partners? I may be slow, but I’m starting to expect the Lord to prepare me for what only He knows comes next!

What an amazing God we serve!

What an amazing adventure He has us all on!

Thank you for your partnership with us and your willingness to be used by Him both internationally and the daily ways He uses you to accomplish His purposes in this World.

God bless!

What a story!

I heard a report on my way to work yesterday about a baby Jesus that was stolen from one of the displays at a local shopping establishment. Following the report, one of the radio personalities commented: “Whoever steals a baby Jesus at Christmas is in for some really bad Karma!”.

Every Christmas I ask the Lord to impress upon me a new aspect of what celebrating our Savior's birth means to this world, my family and my own life. Following the “kidnapped Jesus” news report I found myself reflecting on the Gospel storyline, and how it’s packed with drama, intrigue, harrowing escapes, betrayal, dirty politics, supernatural events and dazzling ghost like appearances. It has all the makings of today’s best sellers or a blockbuster movie, yet we are (or at least I am) so VERY familiar with “that baby in the stable” that the event loses the crushing impact that it truly deserves. If the reality shattering power of what Almighty God did through an event that literally defines all prior and succeeding history can be so easily lost for someone like myself that was raised in the Church, it’s no wonder that the world sees little more than a plastic light up baby and good or bad karma during the Christmas season!

So what does Christmas mean for me as I dig through e-mails, respond to phone calls or converse with pastors regarding Cuba ministry? This year I am especially drawn to the name of “Emmanuel” or “God is with us”. The name that the Angel gave Mary for the baby she would give birth to (see Matthew 1). His name exemplified the unthinkable idea that the All Powerful-Creator God would literally be with us in a new, very tangible, and eternally significant way.

I have always been moved by Old Testament passages where God shows Himself to “be with” his people. I think of uncompromising Daniel as he is thrown into a cave filled with lions (Daniel 6); of David as a boy standing before a battle hardened, giant warrior with nothing but a few small stones (1 Samuel 17); of Gideon and a few ill equipped men before a mighty and experienced army (Judges 6-8); of Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego seconds before being hurled into a fiery furnace (Daniel 3); and of Abraham ready to sacrifice his only beloved son –the miracle child that God had finally given him in his old age (Genesis 22). God was with each of them in the midst of unimaginable fear and uncertainty. They couldn't know how things would turn out, and by human standards could only anticipate unimaginable pain, suffering and death. But He was there, exemplified in undeniable movements of His mighty hand. Still, all those things -in fact all of history itself, lead up to that precise moment when God took on the very form of His own creation and was physically “with us” for the specific purpose of salvation in the definitive, ultimate and final sacrifice of His Own Blood.

May the Lord impress upon your heart a new, fresh understanding of what Christmas means and an overwhelming joy of what we have to celebrate in our Lord's birth.