God Sized Task
Reach
As we continue to take care of the million and one details necessary to put together VAYA, the community living Bible Institute in our house, that will start in January 2014, we realize just how much of a God sized task this is … and quite frankly, at times, it is rather overwhelming!
Yesterday we had a 2 hour meeting with Carlos Chacón, the Director of the Federation of Vineyard churches in Central America. He graciously always makes time for us and is encouraging and supportive. We are so thankful for this. 2 things happened recently that made me (Diana) realize how big this is.
1. I realized that I had let fears creep in and though I was working on all of the details and was even excited about what we were doing, my fear was running hand in hand with unbelief. Needless to say, when God showed me this, I had to repent.
Vivir Aprender Y Amar
2. As I showed the final brochure to a friend last night, along with the in-depth student application, pastoral recommendation forms, the 9 month school year day-to-day calendar, which included work projects, missional projects, prayer walks, theology courses, a typical day-to-day household/family schedule, a letter of introduction to pastors …. she looked at me in amazement and asked, “Do you mean that you are not IMPLEMENTING this program, but that you’ve ‘dreamed’ it up?!” And I realized, that is exactly what we’ve done! She commented , that is a huge amount of work. And I responded, I did things like this in the business world all the time. And I realized, yet again, that God prepared me!
Together, Les & I have worked through the details (project management), the finances (accounting – guess who did that?!), the overall flavor and design (marketing). John Wimber often said (as does Arthur Butt) that faith is spelled R.I.S.K. And we are very aware of how that feels right now.
Did I mention that everything, every detail has to be done in Spanish. Challenging! A TRULY God sized task!
Step-By-Step
Upcoming Steps
1. Product development / support – Carlos is emailing a digital version of the brochure to the Central America Vineyard pastors with a letter of introduction and recommendation
2. We have to get before several Vineyard Pastors in Costa Rica and present / promote / share our excitement at the vision
3. Tuesday we meet with the Lawyer, who has blessed us immensely by working on this project for free! We need to form a legal association under the Costa Rica Vineyards, with a Board of 10 people (at least half Ticos), put together 2 more documents for the student packages on Visa solicitation and Health Insurance, as well as review the different requirements for all of the Central American countries.
4. Find a mature ministry assistant for next year who has at least rudimentary Spanish skills
5. Complete a huge list of projects to be completed before we start (and believe for the finances to do them)
6. Purchase a Micro-bus for transporting the students (we pray that God will provide this financially)
7. Have 6 students apply and be accepted into the program
8. Open a Bank Account for the Association
RISK – TRUST – RISK – TRUST
Finally, we keep surrendering the vision, the needs (including finances), the details and the journey itself into His hands. Ultimately, we know that He is more interested in the journey and our hearts than the actual outcome. Will VAYA happen? It is in His hands and His control. We cannot make it happen, nor do we want to. We just keep saying, Yes and taking the next step.
One final request. Some of these young men, future pastors, leaders, church planters and missionaries, will not be able to participate in the program without financial help. Just so you can understand, a university educated professional teacher in Nicaragua earns about $50 per month. We will not be in the business of fund-raising for them. We received wise counsel about this. What we do want to do, is give you the opportunity to support/help support a student in need. If you want more information about how you can do this, please email us at:
[email protected]
[email protected]