Have your Passport ready in case you need to travel abroad (or to Miami)

We are hoping to attend Claudia’s youngest sister’s wedding in Chile in just a few weeks, but realized that Jeremy’s passport will soon expire. (I didn’t even have a passport until college, but we’re already on Jeremy’s second!)

So, Claudia spent hours online and by phone only to find that a child’s passport cannot be renewed by mail, and that both parents must be present to renew. She then phoned all over Miami and found that the only “drop in” office in the city (all others had a month+ waiting list) opened at 10:00 AM. So there we were at 9:30 the next morning only to be told that yes, the passport desk opens at 10:00 but we needed to be there at 8:00 in order to get on the day’s list, which was already full for the day. (Why they left out that one vital detail when we called is beyond me). So, Claudia went back home with the kids, I went back to work and returned at 7:15 the next morning to find two people already in line (probably still there from the day before).

True to what we’d been told (the second time around), a gentleman arrived to open the post office at 8:00, but when we asked him for the passport appointment list he flatly informed us: “We don’t have a list; the passport desk opens at 10:00”. Deaf to our protests he opened a few doors, moved a box or two then had a cup of coffee, leaving us standing in front of the passport counter for 45 minutes. Finally, coffee gone, he casually walked over to the passport desk and produced the very clipboard and list we had been asking for! Everyone in line (there was now a small crowd) stared at him in disbelief, muttering descriptive words just out of his earshot so as not to jeopardize their chances any further. I confess that I myself found it rather difficult to “assume the best” of this civil servant at that particular moment as well.

So, the two men in front of me filled in the 10:00 and 10:30 slots and I took the 11:00. Not wanting to assume anything at this point I asked if that meant I could now go to work and return with the family for our 11:00 AM appointment. Not surprisingly he said “no” and explained that the times do not mean anything but that everyone in line (now about 20 adults, most with fidgety children making the entire post office look something like a sugar hyped, chocolate factory daycare) had to stay until their names were called starting at 10:00. (Flashback to the stunned disbelief and descriptive words from a few minutes earlier.)

“What’s the point in having time slots?” I asked.
“It works better this way” he said as I watched one of the kids spill sticky grape juice all over the floor.

So…Claudia and the boys joined me in line before 10:00. We were the second party to be attended since the first person in line left before 10:00 (possibly having a nervous breakdown). And Jeremy’s passport should arrive within a week.

It makes me proud to be an American and know our government handles these things with such dedication and efficiency. Maybe, once Jeremy has his passport, we’ll actually cross the boarder from Miami and visit the US one of these days!

Partnerships, LAM and Missions to the World

A few weeks ago LAM president Steve Johnson and I had the opportunity to attend a Cross Global Link Conference in Chicago which proved to be very encouraging and challenging at the same time. The conference was entitled “Becoming Globally Friendly” and focused on the changing face of world missions including how a traditional North American missions approach much change to remain relevant and continue impacting the world with the Gospel.

On a personal note, I was very encouraged to see that I am not alone in what I have been wrestling with over the past few years concerning the role of church & parachurch organizations (such as LAM) in world evangelism and missions. There was a general understanding that parachurch organizations have unintentionally damaged the N. American missions by removing much of the care of missionaries from the hands of the sending church and we must now encourage, and in some cases show the church how to re-engage in their own missions calling beyond simply being a financial engine for the missions movement. The local church MUST be both the foundation as well as the goal of missions (evangelism must lead to long term discipleship in a local body), and parachurch organizations must assist in this role, not take it over completely. (For more thoughts on this see my other poorly maintained blog: MISsionUNDERSTANDINGS).

On another level Steve and I came away very encouraged that the Lord has prepared Latin America Mission for an already underway historical change in world missions movements. For over a century North American missions has consisted of the sending of missionaries FROM North America TO the rest of the world, but now countries that were traditionally seen as the mission field have a strong enough church to not only evangelize their own country, but send their own missionaries to other countries as well. In the ‘70s LAM was lead to make the difficult decision of turning over all of their individual ministries, projects and even property that had been managed from North America to Latin ministries. This was unthinkable at the time, but exemplified LAM's vision of partnership WITH and not OVER ministries in Latin America. Since that time our practice has been to place missionaries under Latin leadership and to provide assistance to Latin ministries as they request it. It’s not as clean, simple and concise as simply having one focus be that children at risk or seminary education, but it’s empowered the church in these countries to take ownership of their individual call to proclaim the gospel, care for the needy and strengthen the church.

In the first session of the conference, Steve and I were blessed to hear the speaker name LAM as a ministry that has been doing for decades what many other ministries are now trying to figure out how to do, partnering with the international, indigenous church. As I survey the ministries department and consider the many, long term partnerships we currently have, I’m excited to consider the possibilities for the future. We have been able to walk along side many of these ministries for over 40 years and now we have the opportunity to assist them as they continue ministering to those within arms reach, but also lift their eyes up beyond their boarders and consider where the Lord would lead them next.

Please pray for LAM, the Miami Service Office where I am assigned and specifically the Ministries Department I oversee. Because of all of you who pray for us and assist us financially, I am able to serve many, many others throughout Central and South America, the Caribbean and parts of North America as they further the Gospel. Your prayers and gifts are literally touching and encouraging hundreds of ministries in the Spanish & Portugese speaking countries, and now, little by little from there to the rest of the world.

Thank you for your love, prayers and support!

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Luke 10:2

• 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

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.

Date Nights and Answers to Prayer

I’ve never been an actor and usually try not to sing too loud out of respect for those around me, but two nights ago I found myself onstage for the curtain call of “Forbidden Broadway” playing at the Carnival Center for the Performing arts. What a surreal experience! Well that’s the latest in a series of blessings I want to share with you in order to give testimony to God’s faithfulness. Just before Christmas ’06 I had committed to having more “date nights” with Claudia so that we could step away from the normal routine and do the marital maintenance on the wonderful relationship that the Lord had blessed us with. The only problem was that we had precious little “discretionary income” to put towards these nights. I remember praying and asking the Lord for the means to do a little more than a cup of coffee every now and then. I had no idea as to what the Lord had in store!

Only a week or so after that prayer I was leaving for work at 7:00 AM, about ½ hr later than usual, when the home phone rang. The woman calling asked: “This is going to sound strange, but are you Kevin Ayebeg?”
“Yes, who is this?” I asked.
“That’s not important.” she said hurriedly, “I found your name in the directory. You need to call WIOD (local AM News station) right now! They just announced your name as one of the Christmas prize winners and you’ve got 5 minutes left to call in!” She quickly gave me the station’s number and hung up. I never even got her name.

Sure enough, I called the station, gave them my name and they told me that I had won a $100 American Express gift card (and a Rush Limbaugh bobble-head doll). Claudia and I got two really nice date nights out of the card and blessed our mailman with Rush.

It was about two months later that I called in on the same station’s early AM commute trivia show and got through on the second try, only to win yet another $100. certificate for a local Seafood Grill, resulting in another wonderful pair of date nights for Claudia and I.

Since finances have been tight, I’ve been doing various home repair projects for friends and neighbors to make ends meet. I often find myself in the garage working on pieces of furniture or simply getting the tools together I will need for the next project while listening to the local “oldies” station Majic 102.7 which also has various games and contests. I occasionally (maybe two times a month at most) will attempt to call in but only take time to dial up to two times in a row figuring that any more than two tries is a waste of time. Well, again, I got through and won a dinner for two at the local NYPD Pizza Parlor and was entered into a drawing for a new Lexus. I was relieved to not win the Lexus since we couldn’t have afforded the taxes, licensing, registration or insurance, not to mention how to reconcile a missionary driving a brand new Lexus, but we sure enjoyed a nice meal out once again!

It didn’t stop there though. From a local hardware store that I shop at we won a drawing for two tickets (usually $50. each) to the Weston Food and Wine festival, yet another great date afternoon. The most recent answer to my date night prayer came in an unsolicited phone call from another local radio station informing me that I won their monthly birthday drawing which included four tickets to the Broadway show I started with. Since my parents were in town we got to treat them to a night out (and I even looked generous doing it! :-)

God bless!