T-4 Days

It's been a busy few weeks.  I've been doing a lot to get ready to leave.  Nobody wants to hear about my last few days at work, it'd be a really boring story, but half of last week and the first part of this week I went on a last road trip to see some family and friends as well as meet with a couple of congregations to raise support. It was a great trip, met some really awesome people and got to see some of the best people in the world right before I leave.  But now it's time to pack.  I've always waited until the last day to pack and my thought has been, why change now?  It's always worked sooo well BUT, it's a little different this time.  I've got to decide what I need to take with me, I'm a guy so it's not an elaborate thought process, what I need to box up annnnddddddd then do it!  So I'm getting a head start today and since I am sitting here typing you can guess how far I've actually gotten with this whole packing early plan.

But really it isn't packing early.  I'm leaving October 1st, yea that's tuesday...TUESDAY!!  As in 4 days!  Plus there are things to do between now and then that have nothing to do with packing.  But this is going to happen....as soon as I get done blogging....so here I go.....to pack a little more... right now....bye bye.....oh wait I have a story first.

Ok the other day I was talking with some friends and there was one of those moments when someone says something and you immediately remember a few conversations you have had in the past with other people and you had totally forgotten about but someone sure hasn't.  So I was at Lipscomb a few years ago of course people are always asking you what you want to do with your life because hopefully by the time you are in your early 20's you have an idea what you want to do with your life.  I remember sitting with a few friends and we were just talking about that, about our majors and what we wanted to do and whether we could see each other doing that.  So I said that when I'm 25 I hope to be doing one of two things, either working as a full-time youth minister OR living and working abroad in the foreign mission field.  That's what I was telling everyone because that's what I wanted to do.  So we would talk to each other about our interest and what we hoped to do once we were where we wanted to be.  But to make a long story a little shorter, I left Lipscomb thinking a role in ministry might not be my place not because I didn't want it but because I hadn't yet graduated and there seems to be this idea that you can't ever do what you want unless you have a degree, and I didn't have a Bible degree.  After I left I even thought, well maybe I'll push that goal back.  By the age of 30 I want to be in ministry or in the mission field.  That goal eventually faded and I had forgot all about it, pressing on trying to see what else God had planned but apparently He hadn't forgotten.  I turn 26 in about 2 weeks.  I think I've said this before but a lot of things have happened in the last year that have led to this, things that tell me this is what God wants.  A few years ago I told him this is what I wanted and He started working.  I don't believe He would have made this all happen if He didn't want this too.  We just always have to trust in Him, always have a desire to serve Him and he will use you when He is ready.  Remember that when you ask something of Him, He just might do it.  He started putting things together, piece by piece to make this happen. I got chill bumps the other day when I remembered those conversations that had escaped my mind some time ago.  But He hadn't forgotten

He has formed a team, a great team.  A team of people who have a desire to see great work done in Mololoa, a team of people who have faith in Him the orchestrater of all of this and faith in me to do everything I can to make a difference for His Kingdom.  I hadn't really thought a lot about this until just the other day but everyone that has given to allow me to move to Tegucigalpa haven't given just because they love the work being done in Mololoa and know that more help is needed.  You've also given because you believe in me, you trust me, you want to see me do what you know I love.  I can't say thank you enough.  It's humbling to know that one reason so many of you have given and made this possible is because you love me.  Just know that I love each one of you as well and I can't wait to tell you all about it.  As most of you know, where I go good stories will follow.  Or rather shower heads that catch fire, or scorpions that bite you, or THE BUS LEAVING YOU AT A YOUR WORK SITE TO GO EAT LUNCH!!! They make for good stories...eventually.  But anyways, THANK YOU!! All of you for making this happen.  It's going to be amazing!!!  

.....I guess I'll get back to packing now.....

One step closer!

Ok, I have to admit that I’ve been in a relationship for a year and a half now.  Some of you know this and some of you are going to be like WHHHAAAAT???  But now as I move to Honduras I have to let her go and it’s not fun.  A year and a half ago I met her and knew immediately she was the one.  I had been looking for a few years for her and she finally came into my life.  We know everything about each other, we are like one when we are together.  She is an extension of me.  When she hurts, I hurt.  When I hurt, she makes me feel better.  She is sleek and beautiful, a sexy stallion.  She had just gotten out of a relationship when we met.  Her previous man was in the military and was being sent to Hawaii, he just couldn’t afford to bring her along…. or to ship her.  Like a knight in shining armor, I burst onto the scene and swept her off her….tires.  I cranked her up for the first time, she started to say something after a minute but I stopped her and said, “You had at VROOM!”.  But I now feel terrible, doing the same to her that the last guy did.  Leaving the country and having to leave her to start a new relationship, a new life, a new home, a new family.  We had a lot of great adventures together but now all we have are memories.  As I sit here, holding back the tears, I reminisce about our long trips together to the beautiful Keys, to the great mountains of West Virginia, and to the amazing back roads of Alabama and Tennessee.  I slept in her comfortable bucket seats and she helped me as I moved.  Oh the memories…. But I’ll be ok, the dreams of me shifting through her gears will soon subside and I’ll move on.  But it’s for her own good, at least I’m telling myself that, because she would never survive the roads of Honduras.  It has been three days since I abruptly let her know that she would be leaving me for someone else within an hour.  When I word it like that it doesn’t make me look as bad.  I hope she is happy.

But on a serious note, things are progressing well.  I have still not reached my goal of monthly support but I am getting closer.  September 26^th -30^th looks like the date that I will be leaving, with the 30^th being the most likely day.  I’m getting more excited everyday but the reality that I’m leaving my family and friends is beginning to set in.  I’m going to miss them and I wouldn’t be doing this, leaving them, if I didn’t have a passion for Mololoa and didn’t think that God wants me there.  But I do have a passion for the people and the work there and I fully believe that God wants me there for the foreseeable future.  Please keep praying about this and I’ll keep you posted on how things are going and if anything changes I’ll definitely let you know.  If you know of anyone who would like to help financially, please let me know and I will contact them.  Now that I’ve sold my car I have moved one step closer to moving.  The money I got for my car will go directly towards buying another vehicle in Honduras, which I am told are a little more expensive than they are in the States.  Other plans are coming together nicely, I just have to reach my goal of support which I am sure will happen because I believe God is working to make this happen.

The Worst Kept Secret

I’ve said this before but I’ll say it one more time.  I view God as an author.  A perfect author who is continually writing the best story ever told.  It is a story that began before time and a story that will never end.  One huge story full of millions of small ones that are all connected somehow at some point.  We each have our own little story that is woven together with everyone else’s story to create a masterpiece.  Each of us has our own part to play in His story but it is up to us how significant our role will be.  Will we try to write our own part or will we allow the Perfect Author to write our story, to lead us to live the part He has in store for us.   That is the choice we must all make. 

Our stories may not make sense to us at one time or another.  We may not see where God is taking us but one day we are going to be able to look back and see just what God was doing the whole time.  We’ll get to stop and say, wow He really was doing some amazing things.  That’s what I’ve been able to do lately and share a few instances in which I’ve seen that.

I was the kid who never left home.  Never went to spend the night at friend’s houses.  I never did anything like that.  I had a bed at home where my family was and that’s where I wanted to be.  Slowly that started to change as I entered the youth group.  I finally started going on some weekend retreats but that was about it.  So in 2005 when I was 17 and I told my parents that I wanted to go on a mission trip in the summer of 2006 for 10 days to Honduras with the Church.  I can’t even imagine what they were thinking.  This kid has lost his mind but I was completely serious.  I had some friends at school and we would always joke about how if we ended up as missionaries who would be the best.  Who would baptize the most people or if we were youth ministers who would have the most kids in their youth group.  We would joke with each other about how great or terrible we would be at it even though none of us had any experience at all working with a youth group or any mission experience.  I knew that it was something that I might want to do and I wanted to give it a try and see what God would do.  So at 17 I decided it was time.  After talking a lot with my parents I signed up for a 10 day trip to Honduras.  This is where the story gets interesting and it has taken me a few years to see what God was doing.  I applied for my passport in late April, plenty of time to receive it in the mail but I went ahead and had it expedited just to be on the safe side.  You know, plenty of time for it to get here, PLENTY.  So here I am on the first Thursday in July knowing that I have to be at the Church at 11pm to take a bus ride to Raleigh, NC to be on a plane at 7 am to fly to Honduras and….. I do not yet have my passport.  I sat at the front door all day, bags packed, waiting on that thing.  I called the postal service and they were trying to track it, I called the airline company and they said it was too late to change the ticket.  Yea, I was freaking out.  The hours kept going by one after another until it was time.  10pm, no passport and it was time to leave for the Church.  So I left my bags at home, drove by myself over to the Church and cried the entire way.  I remember punching my steering wheel over and over and yelling at God, “If you didn’t want me to go then why didn’t you just say so.  Why did you have to tell me like this.”  I was mad at the world and the God that created it.  I screamed and yelled and drove around an extra 20 minutes just to calm down before I went to the Church.  I couldn’t believe that this was happening.  I was soo ready for this trip and now I wasn’t going to be able to go.  Our group leader already knew what was going on but when I got to the Church I had to tell others that I wasn’t going to be able to go.  That is a feeling I hope no one else has to experience.  My heart was broken, my trust in God was shaken and I was mad at everything.  He always has a plan though.  Everyone loaded the bus to go to the airport and as they pulled out of the parking lot, literally just as the lights faded out of sight, my phone started ringing.  My dad had been on the phone since I had left and found out that the postal service was guaranteeing my passport would arrive the next day, Friday, and also to tell me that the airline was not only now going to change my ticket, but allow me to switch to a closer airport.  I would be flying out Saturday morning and would arrive in Tegucigalpa around noon.  So I quickly called our group leader to let him know and then hugged everyone that was still at the Church.  I got in my car and cried all the way back home while apologizing to God for doubting Him, I mean really He’s God, don’t doubt Him.  Needless to say I went from the most upset person in the world to one of the happiest in just a matter of minutes.  Unfortunately things didn’t all go as planned.  I was able to get to Tegucigalpa on Saturday, I flew from Columbia to Houston to Teguc.  My bags went Columbia to Houston to Las Vegas…. From Saturday to Wednesday I had to borrow clothes and soap and toothpaste and all that good stuff.  Everyone pitched in to help but it was still very inconvenient.  I had also just had surgery on my wrist in May.  I was cleared to do most things except really heavy lifting.  So on the very first house I helped build, I’m lifting a board up to the guys on the roof and one of them loses his grip, drops the board and of all places for it to hit it hits right across my wrist where it had been broken.  It bruised up pretty quickly and I thought I might have re-broken it.  Thankfully after I got back I had it x-rayed and it was fine but I really couldn’t do anything with it while I was still on the trip.  Despite everything that happened I loved everything about the trip.  The work we were able to do, the people I met, the impact we were able to make.  I loved it all.  So the next year it wasn’t even a decision for me, I was going to do whatever I could to make sure I was going to go back.  And I did.  I tell you this story because now I am able to look back and I think I know what God was doing.  I think He was looking at me and saying, “Lets see how dedicated this little guy is to doing this kind of work”.  “I want to see your passion, your desire and your willingness to endure”.  I think He wanted to see just how much I wanted to do this.  He pushed me to the brink mentally with my passport and taught me to NEVER doubt Him even when things seem completely hopeless, there is always hope.  He made things inconvenient for me to see if I could handle it and look past it to continue having a passion for the work that was being done.  To see if it would really bother me or if I would trust in Him to take care of me.  And I did.  He pushed me physically to the point where I couldn’t really use my right arm for much of the trip to see if I would give up or if I would find a way to continue being useful in the work that was being done.  And I did.  Then a year later He found out that I would be willing to endure it all again to be a part of the work that was going on in Honduras.  I went back for round two.  He threw me a curveball, a slider and a split finger, a tough trio to see how dedicated I was to this mission field.  To see if I was willing to let Him write part of my story in that place. 

Since then I have spent part or all of my summers in Honduras.  It seems like each year I stay a little longer.  This summer it was 2 months and it has had a real impact on me.  The kid that wouldn’t stay at the neighbor’s house spent two months in Central America.  That house that put me out of commission the first year, yea I’ve now built 54 of those.  Crazy right?  I have a passion for the work there, a passion I don’t have for anything else.  He has seen my dedication, my passion and desire for this work.  He has seen what I am willing to sacrifice and how far I am willing to go for a work I believe in and for Him who I trust in.  My experiences there have changed the way I view everything.  For years I have been saying that I feel like God is leading me to live and work in Mololoa, a community in Tegucigalpa.  The last 6 months this has really been on my mind a lot and for a few different reasons.  I went this summer with the focus of seeing if this was where God was going to write the next chapter of my life.  After seeing the dominoes fall in place one after another and talking with many people about the work in Mololoa, I have decided that it is time for me to hand the pen completely over to God and let Him write me into His story on His terms.  His role for me, His place, His plans, His design.  The worst kept secret is that I am planning on moving to Tegucigalpa within two months.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is what He wants.  With everything that has happened in the last 2 months I can’t see Him wanting anything else.  I have been back in the States since Monday and I’m itching to get on a plane back.  It has been great to see my family and I am working on getting things done that will lead me back to Teguc soon. 

Palmetto Church of Christ in Columbia, SC are the main supporters of the work in Mololoa.  We have a Daycare that provides free childcare 5 days a week to moms who need to be able to go work to provide for their families.  We have a Kitchen that feeds anywhere from 50-100 kids a day and sometimes more.  We also support a preacher who works everyday in the community.  The community is one of the poorest you will see.  Small wooden, one room houses. No electricity or running water.  The families work all day just hoping to have money for food that night.  The people are amazing but they are living in a cycle that doesn’t allow them to escape.  Most of them have to quit school early to work just to help their family survive which then hinders their ability to have any kind of a decent job later in life.  So they repeat the lives of their parents, not able to escape the cycle of poverty.  In order to survive, they have to give up the only opportunity they have to escape, their education.  It really is sad and it’s something that we are hoping to change and in many instances are changing.

My role will be to work closely with Evelyn to help manage and run the Daycare and the Kitchen.  That will be my primary goal.  I will also be able to work with Noel, the preacher, to help the people of the community grow spiritually.  In my opinion you need to meet the physical needs of people, build relationships with them, in order to have a greater impact on them spiritually.  We are doing just that in Mololoa.   There have been some ups and downs along the way but things are looking up.  I will be able to help fix a few issues that are going on and assist in the ever increasing workload that is weighing down those who run the ministries as they are growing.  I had two big obstacles that I was worried about when I started seriously thinking of taking this leap of faith.  First that the elders of my Church who oversee the work in Mololoa would allow me to move and work with their ministries.  And Secondly, the financial support.  After conversations with one of our elders, he has told me that one of those obstacles was actually never an obstacle.  I have the approval of our elders to work in the community, that will not be an issue at all.  The only other obstacle is financial support.  After talking with some people who live and work in Teguc as missionaries, I’ve been able to create a budget of what I think it will take to live and work in Mololoa.  $1500 a month is my goal.  If you break it down that’s only 30 people at $50 a month.  I think that is attainable.  Being a missionary is in no way a one man job.  It takes a team.  A team consisting of financial supporters, prayer warriors and someone who is willing to go.  If you are reading this then you have found someone who is ready and willing to go.  I have no doubt that this is what God wants for me, I think He is just itching to write the next part of my story  and yours.  I am so excited to let Him and I hope you are too!  I have seen too many things fall into place over the last few months and years to believe that He wants anything other than for me to put all of my trust in Him and go for it.  I pray that we can partner together, work as a team to allow God to write our story.  Allow Him to weave our stories into one as we serve Him.  If you will please pray for me and for this work that is being done I would really appreciate it.  Everything has to start with prayer and trust me I’ve gotten a good jump on that.  God knows exactly what I want and knows my heart and He is continuing to push me towards this work.  If you think you might be able to join the team as a financial supporter then I ask you contact me through email.  My email is jtgist@hotmail.com.  It doesn't have to be $50, it can be anything. Everything helps, $5, $10, $25, $50, $100.  It will all help.  If you have any questions I will be extremely happy to answer them or if you want to talk on the phone then just email me and we can swap numbers.  If you need more information just let me know and I will be glad to give you whatever you need.  Pray about it, think about it, and then pray about it some more and if you feel God calling you to this team then I’d love to hear from you.

In Christ, Tyler