Extreme Stuff & Extreme Responsibility

While in Peru, we saw and participated in Extreme Stuff.  We saw over 1,000 get saved at one time and commit to be discipled by 40/40 missionaries.  We saw a mayor buy lunch for every worker at our medical clinic/kids festival.  Rachel saw women prisoners turn their lives over to God AND ask to be discipled in a Bible study meeting in the prison.  The boys and I climbed an impressive rock cliff.  Rachel was extremely sick for several days.  Just don't ask her about it.  She's fine now and would rather tell you about all the things that God did than dwell on the time she spent in bed!)

And while we were in Peru, our family accepted an extreme change.  No, we aren't moving to the field (right now- HA).  We aren't even moving.  Rachel has accepted a new position with Extreme.  She will now be Mobilization Officer, taking over for Brent Deakins, who has moved to Operations Officer.  The Mobilization Officer is responsible for mobilizing people and resources to meet the needs on the field.  Rachel will continue to do some of the same things she has been doing: speaking in churches, recruiting and mentoring 40/40's, raising funds to adopt communities and coordinating teams with the field for projects.  She will have other huge responsibilities as well.  She is now the leader for everyone doing those same mobilization tasks, and needs to grow her team to be full of mobilizers at the local church, group of churches, district and zone levels.  And she will be doing this while Extreme, for the first time ever, has multiple projects going.

Now before you ask, the Mobilization Officer is not a paid position; all Extremies are volunteers and raise their own support.  Rachel is still supported by people who partner with us in ministry to provide the fields in Peru, Paraguay and Columbia with short- and long-term missionaries and the funds to make the projects go.  We are in need of more investors to continue to mobilize "workers into the fields" that are "white for the harvest."  With Rachel's new responsibilities she needs to keep more consistent office hours, and that will require a regular babysitter for Miles, half days, Monday through Thursdays.  We are also trying to get out of the our house in Missouri and have it listed to sell.  We'll have to take a loss to get rid of it, and that is an additional financial burden.  Please pray for these needs and consider whether God is leading you to partner with us.

Many people have asked how I feel about Rachel's new job, and it's a fair question.  This job will require not only more work and responsibility, but more travel.  The Mobilization Officer has to meet with mobilizers all over the country to equip them to do the job.  She also needs to have firsthand knowledge of the needs on the field, so Rachel will be traveling internationally a bit more than she has in the past.  Her traveling means more time for me to be the only parent in the house, in charge of tooth brushing, homework, chores, bedtime, etc., etc., etc.

So, how do I feel about the responsibility, the travel and all that goes along with it?  First, I am excited for the role WE get to play in missions and Extreme.  Second, I am incredibly proud of Rachel.  She is the first female officer and the youngest officer with Extreme.  God has blessed her hard work with tangible and intangible results.  Third, I have decided that whatever challenges this brings will only help make me into a better father, husband and Christian.  I pray that our whole family will continue to be a part of building God's Kingdom in every way possible.

Chad

El Luchador

So now that we are home and things have settled down, I thought I would get you all caught up with a few more stories from Peru.

This story requires a little bit of background.  Like many participants, I was late sending in a picture to have put on my ID badge for Love Extreme.  Unlike most of those people, I am married to a full time Extremie and have my picture on the Extreme website.  That means that certain persons working in the office (Chad Duerre, Rachael Miller) know what I look like and can try finding some kind of "celebrity look alike" to put on my card instead.  Their specifications were white, bald, with a goatee, and the result was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

And now on to the story.  It was Saturday in Cusco, and  was one of our last chances to get out and do outreach stuff in the area.  Many of the people in our group were leaving in the afternoon for Machu Pichu, but we had time for a medical clinic and kids festival in Poroy, Cusco, Peru.  Rachel stayed back with Ryan; this was her first day of being sick.

The day been going great.  Poroy was having a festival of their own and we got to hang out with the police canine unit and even take pictures with their dogs.  We did the usual balloon animals and kid festival stuff.  The mayor was so impressed that he sent us lunch, delivered by the police.  Just after the Machu group left, we were tying salvation bracelets for kids.  I had a great time having the older kids read what each color on the bracelet meant, making sure that it was not just a trinket from an American, but something that had actual eternal meaning.

As I was tying my last bracelet, the girl who would have been next to get one if I had anymore, noticed my ID badge hanging from my pant pocket.  "El es un luchador!"   (He's a wrestler/fighter!)  Thanks to Nacho Libre, I was familiar with that term and chucked to myself.  But that wasn't it; the crowd of kids began to repeat in whispers, "El es un luchador."

Without anymore bracelets to thread and tie, I began face/hand painting.  The boys quickly lined up and I painted a car for the first boy.  It was orange and looked a lot like the many Daewoo Taxis that drive the streets of Peru.  As I began painting another car, a different girl noticed and remarked, "El luchador es un artista!"  (The wrestler is an artist!)  The moment was hilarious and the rest of our time their in Poroy, I was, El Luchador to all the kids.

On a serious note, I pray that more than "the Wrestler," those kids remember the love we showed them. That when 40/40 missionaries come back they'll be interested some more, and ultimately, El Luchador will have helped plant a seed that will grow in good soil.  That God will reap a harvest in Poroy that is beyond anything we could hope or imagine.

In the end, that is probably to most positive impact Mr. Stone Cold Steve Austin has ever had.  On that thought, I'll say a prayer for him, too!