Jeff Adams

Once again I´m posting earlier than I normally do because I won’t get back to the house where I’m staying until late and then I’ll have to get up at some crazy hour to make my 0715 flight home in the morning. I’m at least 30 minutes from the airport, so you do the math to see when I’ll be getting up.

Our new friend Gabriel came through surgery fine this morning by the grace of God. The surgeons said the tumor appeared to be intact and had not spread. So, by taking out the kidney they are confident he can live a normal life with some minimal life style changes. Thanks again for your prayers.

This morning I finished up the teaching on missions for pastors and leaders. Tonight is my final message and I’ll be discussing the church as the missionary. Last night I spoke on the new missionary. What’s interesting is that Sunday I’ll be preaching the same message in English at KCBT. What is the profile of what I have been calling the “new missionary?” See you Sunday!

What’s a pupusa? Never mind, you probably wouldn’t understand. For those of you who do, I was eating pupusas within 12 hours of touchdown here in El Salvador. A bit slow, but I didn’t have my own transportation.

This morning was the first of two sessions on missions for pastors and leaders. I think it was well received. Following the morning meeting I had lunch with the church board to discuss their possible participation in the BKA, our alliance to reach the K people Last night was the first of three evening messages on the mission. Tonight is the second. I am writing early because I won’t be back to where I am staying until very late and will be tired.

Thanks to those of you who are praying for Gabriel. As I mentioned yesterday, Gabriel is the adult son of the widow in whose home I am staying. Let me give you an update. They have determined that the cancerous tumor they discovered yesterday is in the central part of his left kidney. This means they will have to remove the entire left kidney. Evidently, this is the type of tumor that explodes at some point and sends cancer throughout the body. Fortunately, they think they have caught this one early enough to remove it before this happens. I hope I am explaining this right in English. It makes very good sense in Spanish, but I’m not sure how to be a bit more technical in English for those of you who are medically inclined.

Right now they are admitting him to the hospital and tomorrow morning (Friday), they will take out his kidney. If all is as it appears, they believe he will be able to live a normal life with one kidney. That is our prayer.

Here’s what is interesting to me. This all began yesterday in the middle of the night when he awoke to severe pain and they rushed him to the ER. They soon had the pain under control, but had him go back yesterday afternoon for the scan that revealed the tumor. It was the pain that resulted in the discovery of the tumor that could have taken his life.

Think about that. It was the pain that is apparently going to save Gabriel. This is so consistent with biblical truth. God uses pain and suffering to protect us and to help us grow. We often mess things up by resisting, ignoring or running from the pain. Maybe we should learn to embrace pain, be sensitive to it and see how God wants to use it for our good. We are do goofed up with legalism and shallow understanding of the Bible we think that all pain is our fault, or means we messed up somehow.

Got pain?

Got the morning off and was able to catch up on a bit of sleep. When I went downstairs to meet the lady of the house where I am staying, she had just found out they took one of her married sons to the hospital overnight with intense pain. This afternoon they discovered a cancerous tumor in his kidney. I was able to go with Pastor German so we can pray with the family before they took him in for a scan early this afternoon. His name is Gabriel and I know they would appreciate your prayers. There was talk of operating on him even this evening, but I’m not sure since I just got in and everyone appears to be asleep.

The service went well this evening and I saw some old friends. That was very nice. One nice feature is that a local dance school had learned some K_uridsh dances from YouTube and performed a couple of them this evening. That was a great treat, since I am presenting our alliance to them this week that they might join with us to friends of the K people.

It’s late and I begin teaching a basis missions course for pastors and leaders early in the morning. I’ll try to check back in tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

It’s late and I need some sleep, but I wanted to let you know where I am this week. This morning I got up at 0330 to catch a flight to San Salvador, El Salvador via Houston. I’m speaking at a mission conference here in a church whose pastor is a man who grew up under my ministry here. In fact, I performed  his wedding. They have asked me to teach basic missions to a group of pastors in the mornings and speak in the evening conference. They are seriously considering becoming part of our alliance of churches to reach the K’s.

Seems like I can’t even catch the early flight out of KCI without bumping into someone I know. Today it was a staff member of a neighboring church and former Shepherd School student whose was also headed with his wife to San Salvador where they are beginning to process the adoption of a Salvadoran boy this week. As I was talking to them, my friend Samer came up from behind to greet me. Samer is originally from the same country as the K’s with whom we work, only he is from a different ethnic group. Samer married a lady who grew up in the faith at KCBT and now they are with Avant Ministries and doing a marvelous ministry.  He was on his way to Houston.

Tomorrow I’ll try to do a better job of catching you up, but I just wanted to check in before checking out. Goodnight!

Yesterday in our study of The Mission we were talking about the different people groups of the world. The mission we have received is to make the Good News accessible to every ethnic group on the planet. This is quite an ambitious task, but clearly doable with today’s technology and modern transportation. All the technology and travel in the world is to no avail without an understanding of how to communicate effectively across language and culture. This is the hardest part of all.

An advantage of being a “church for all peoples” is that we have real life opportunity to communicate cross-culturally on a daily basis. This is an amazing advantage for raising children and also for our growth as adults. In our church you don’t have to search far to find someone from a different culture.

Let me reiterate something I said Sunday. One of the greatest gifts you can give to someone who is in our city from another culture is to invite them into your home for a meal. In many cultures, an invitation to a meal in someone’s home is like making a covenant of friendship and something that is taken extremely seriously. Sadly, there are countless thousands of foreign college students who spend years here without ever having the chance to be in a typical American home.

Not just students, but those who are here on business also appreciate an invitation to friendship. Our youngest daughter and her family met a Japanese family here on business through having children of the same age in school. The mother is an avid student of American culture, but had no contacts to be invited to American homes. We invited the family to a Christmas meal and they absolutely loved seeing our seasonal decorations and the inside of our home. A wonderful friendship has ensued and they have been back several times. Th e mother has even visited our daughter’s church – a huge step for her.

Here’s a very important element. Do NOT invite a foreign guest to your home just as a “hook” to “present the Gospel” to them or invite them to church. Do not do this unless you are willing to be friends no matter whether they ever come to share your faith in Christ or not. For many, many cultures, to invite someone to your home and then press your faith upon them, even in a gentle way, is considered the ultimate of insults and demonstrates the insincerity of your character, even if you consider yourself totally sincere.  If you are living the life of Christ, your ensuing friendship will give you plenty of opportunities to answer questions and share you faith at some point in the future.

A lawyer once tried to trip up Jesus by asking him what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds by asking him what the scripture says. The lawyer smugly quotes the law by saying that one should love God with all his heart, strength, soul and mind, and to love his neighbor as himself.

Jesus says that this is a fine answer, but that he should actually live this out in addition to being able to quote scripture. The lawyer, wanting to justify himself, asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In his mind the lawyer is probably categorizing different types of people to congratulate himself that he loves all the people who are like himself. Jesus, though, responds with the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, a story of selfless love that crosses fierce ethnic barriers.

Though the lawyer’s question had impure motives, let me throw it back at you. Who is your neighbor? Are you willing, like the Good Samaritan, to cross ethnic barriers to be a reflection of God’s saving love?

Some things to consider:

• How many people groups are represented in your immediate neighborhood?
• Remember how kids sometimes plays games in the car on a long trip by counting the state license plates they see? Why not see how many ethnic groups you can count at your local Wal-Mart (or similar store).
• How many different ethnic groups can you identify as servers in restaurants? You can say something like, “You are a great server and your English is impeccable. But I have a hobby of trying to identify accents. Could I ask where you are from originally?”
• Do you have any idea how many languages are spoken in your local school district? Why not find out!
• Who do you know at KCBT that is of ethnic group different from yours? Why not invite someone of a different ethnic group to your home for a meal?