When God's plans are bigger

Where to even start!

So I have been planning this mission trip to Colombia, with the purpose of building one church. I finally got in contact with some pastors, and after much prayer, I decided God was calling me to build the church in Fundacion, Magdalena, Colombia. I started talking to pastor Camacho, planning everything out. And I guess that's where everything starts.

Before I jump into everything that happened, I have to tell about what happened before I left. If ya’ll have read some of my previous blogs, I have really been trying to grow my faith. After reading certain mission stories I see, or feel the lack of faith in my life and have been trying to grow my faith. Starting about 6 months ago I decided that God was in control of my bank account. Meaning, whatever happens, I’m not going to worry. I will continue to put it in His hands. Soon after, I was robbed along with a few other situations, and I ended up broke. But! God provided. He provided me with a job (more than one to be honest), and much, much more. Ever since that idea of giving God 100% control of my personal finances… Life has been interesting! I feel like I’ve grown a lot. But! That wasn’t enough, I wanted more. Which led to the idea of putting God in charge of bank-rolling this mission project. That means, no searching for donations, not calling people who have helped in the past, no trying anything on my own to get the money I needed. It meant simply posting about my mission project plans and the cost that it entailed, without asking for donations. So, I did just that. My church has been a huge supporter of my missions and kicked me off with money they had been saving up for the project. Other donations slowly started coming in, but it didn’t seem fast enough. As I got closer to the project dates, I realized that if I was going to do this project, I needed to step out in faith with the money that I had, and buy the tools, materials, and travels needed to go there and back. By the time I bought everything that I was going to take with me, the money remaining seemed so useless. Now I have all the tools, and my tickets to and from Colombia… but only 1/3 of the money that I needed for the actual construction. Time kept ticking and pretty soon we were at 2 weeks from the trip. I was still short about $2,5000 at least. I just continued to pray, and started fasting every Wednesday. There was one time where someone came up to me and said that if I ever needed anything, to just ask them. I struggled so much, but said to God, “If they are going to donate, it will not be because I asked.” She headed back to Michigan and I didn’t think about it much more. The following Sabbath, I got a text from this lady's husband out of the blue and they donated $500. That same Sabbath my dad received a donation for me at my home church in Michigan for $500. Both were people that felt God telling them to donate. Many other people put in donations that seem to me to be out of the blue. Both large and small donations touched me greatly, because I knew and could see that God was working. It was amazing seeing that God stepped up! He fulfilled His promise. He provided in His time! I allowed Him to show Himself to me, by not cheating my faith and searching frantically, but by prayer, and fasting, and waiting on Him. It was and is, so much more rewarding than I could ever even explain. But this was just the beginning.

I now had to find a way to pull out all the money and carry it with me. Last time I went to Colombia we had problems with transferring the money and I didn’t want that hassle this time. I made the transfers to my friend's banks so they could pull it out for me here in Maryland. But the transfers didn’t come through in time. Thankfully one of the staff here at Highland View Academy, where I work, stepped up and pulled out the money in advance, to give to me so I wouldn’t have to figure it all out in Colombia. She also was an answer to prayer. So! Here I am with everything. The tools, the tickets, the money for the church. I had everything except $500. God had provided at this point, about $7,000 for this project. All through faith and prayer.

So! back to the mission project! I packed everything up, and Tuesday morning got a ride to the airport. I flew from Dulles to San Salvador and had a huge layover. From San Salvador I flew to Bogota, and I slept the night in the airport. On Wednesday morning I caught my last flight to Barranquilla where the pastor was going to pick me up and drive me to Fundacion. Throughout my travels I wrote up an extensive list of questions for the pastor, as well as things that needed to be done as soon as I arrived. When I shared these plans with Pastor Camacho, he smiled and told me that “Tomorrow will be your day, but today is mine.” He proceeded to take me around Barranquilla, then out to Santa Marta. Santa Marta has some of the most beautiful beaches of Colombia. Then on our way to Fundacion, he took me to two other church plots that are ready for construction. He hadn’t even shown me the lot where I was going to be building the first church. He hadn’t even seen the churches that I build to know whether he liked them. And yet he was already advertising and planning for me to come back down and do these two other churches, Santa Rosa, and El Copey. Remember those names because they will come up again! As I checked out the lots, I told him that one of them needed a lot of work to level before we could move forward, and also that El Copey was perfect. It was level, the ground was solid, and it was just perfect. I think this is where the pastor started to go crazy. I finally arrived at the construction site, after traveling for 36 hours. I took a quick look at the lot with my flashlight. It was 7 PM when I got to the house where I would be sleeping. I showered and went to bed. I was so dead tired, and the next day work was planned to start at 7 AM.

Thursday we started work. The members quickly asked me if I would be willing to use a wall they had already been building, in order to save money. I was not into the idea at first, but after checking the wall, and thinking about it I decided that we would. It would give us more space to build, save us some money and time, and seemed like a good idea. The original plan was to prepare the ground to pour the foundation on Sunday, but I saw quickly that we would be ready much sooner. Friday morning we poured the cement and I wet-set the first course of block. Thankfully we finished a little early on Friday and were able to rest and prepare for Sabbath. On Sabbath I went to a youth event where all the youth from the area got together for “Global Youth Day.” It was pretty fun to meet youth from the surrounding SDA churches. Another pastor snatched me away for a few minutes to show me one of his churches that only needed a roof. This is where I started to go crazy, hahaha. I was thinking about doing it! Even though I had only done the foundation for the church, I was seeing that these guys were quick workers and knew that we would finish early. So I told the pastor we would keep in contact and see what happened later on the following week. When I told pastor Camacho, he had different plans though, which we will get into in a bit. That evening we went over to Camacho’s house and played dominos with him and his son. It was nice to be able to relax with his family.

Sunday started a new week of work and stuff was moving quickly! We kept moving up every day and by Thursday we are all done with the walls; 15 courses of block around the building, and the peaks reached 22 courses. We were able to move quickly because we only had three out of the four walls to build, and also because the workers were focused. I had two guys fly in from another mission project in Medellin to help me with my project. Thankfully my friend Carl worked with me on other projects and knew the system, so when I had to go to town to buy stuff, I would tell him and he would help things keep running smoothly. The pastor also brought in a member from one of his other churches, John, to help me out with the roof. We were doing the roof differently than what I’m used to, because it's better for the area we are building. They have their water runoff going to the front and back of the building instead of to the sides. This way the runoff doesn’t hit the neighbors house or their property. So we decided to do the church's roof the same. He gave me a list of materials he needed and we ordered them on Wednesday. Thursday we had a small problem because the members didn’t like how we had planned the roof. Eventually I told the pastor that if they didn’t want to do it the way we planned, then they could put up the money and do it how they wanted to. Thankfully the pastor stepped in and told the members that it was decided and if they didn’t want to do it the way John and I had decided, that they could front the money and do it another way. They quickly quieted down and John started on the roof as I finished the walls. We also had a problem because the shop sent us caliber 20 metal, when we bought caliber 18, and they sent us some off-brand roofing. One of the members went into town and disputed with the company over the shady dealings. Eventually the shop changed the metal. Thursday night I finished the walls, and John was finishing welding, so that Friday they could put the structure up.

Through the week I had been telling the pastor that we were going to finish a week ahead of schedule and that I was interested in doing another project. After a lot of talking we decided to do the foundation for the second site, El Copey. I told him I would get as much done as I could and whatever didn’t get finished, I would come back over Thanksgiving to finish. But by Friday when we got to the second site, the plan was to completely finish the church. Crazy right?!!!! That’s what I’m talking about when I say the pastor and me went crazy. But realistically it's God that's crazy! I mean, who goes down to do a project to build one church, and ends up building two? But with God all things are possible, I guess! So I posted on Facebook only stating that I had another project come up and a few people put in some donations. I told the pastor that I didn’t have enough money for a whole church, and he responded by saying, God would provide, but that we should build. We should build as fast as we can, and when the money runs out, we will stop. Pastor Camacho also got in touch with the association and after talking with them, they decided to put up money so that we would be able to finish both churches. So! Friday we headed out to the second site, with huge plans. Unfortunately, when we got there it wasn’t as prepared as the workers made it sound. We spent the whole day Friday in El Copey, making the rebar cages for the foundation, digging the trench, and fixing some plumbing problems. I was pretty disappointed, and told the pastor that we needed to catch up, and we had burnt a whole day. When Sunday came around, everything was different.

That Sabbath, we headed out to some more sites that the pastor had ideas about. By ideas I mean other sites that he was hoping that I would become attached to and return to build. We went to one church, which had been working on building the walls, but when I checked them out they were not up to the standard of quality I wanted, and I told the pastor that if I was going to come build here they would have to tear it all down. Then we went to Pivijay. The church members there have been over 20 years without a church. Right now someone is letting them use the building on their lot as a church, but they don’t have their own building, or lot. They are talking about buying the lot so that they can build their own church, and are hoping that in the next year or two I can come down there to build a church with them. Pivijay has no established Adventist church building, and only one group of members. The next town over doesn’t even have Adventists in it. This church will be a gateway to the communities around and I’m hoping that if it's God's will, I will be able to return soon to build another church for Him. Anyways, back to the story! Sabbath afternoon I went to an activity in El Copey, and that evening again I spent with the pastor's family.

Sunday morning we got up and drove the hour distance to El Copey to start on the foundation and when I got there, I was thoroughly surprised. There must have been close to 25 guys there! They were already pouring cement when I arrived. I quickly drew up the plan for the church after meeting with the pastor and the head elder and started wet-setting the first course of block. At this site we had 2 wheel barrels that allowed us to work 3 times as fast! We poured twice as much foundation as in Fundacion, and finished in half the time. It was unreal! After we finished pouring, we took a break for lunch, then that afternoon started laying block. We got up to 5 courses of block and then finished early. It was unreal. I had gotten discouraged because of the slow work on Friday, but we completely got caught back up on Sunday. I felt like I was watching a miracle happen all over again!

Monday through Wednesday we finished the walls, and Thursday we finished the gabled ends and almost finished assembling the roof structure. Wednesday when they started on the gabled ends, the head elder, Manuel, and I cut and assembled all the trusses. It was awesome! We assembled all the trusses in about 3 hours. Thursday we put up all the trusses and half the purlins. I felt like God was totally in control, because the efficiency of the team was something I hadn’t seen since my trips to Mexico. Friday came and my goal was to finish the roof. Unfortunately they also wanted to pour the floor for the church. The team divided in half and despite our best efforts we weren’t able to finish the roof or the floor. The pastor still invited the Association President to speak at the church for the main service, and it was a blessing. President Torres was pretty impressed with all the work that had been done, and even more impressed when he saw the church in Fundacion that afternoon. After the main service we had lunch with some of the members in El Copey, then headed back to Fundacion for a dedication service in the afternoon. Both services were so special to me. To see the members happy to finally have a place to serve, to see the look of pride on the faces of those who helped in the construction, meant so much to me! Fundacion has only been a church plant for one year, -- one year under a very small roof with no walls and no doors. El Copey has been around for over 17 years. That's 17 years without a proper church, --17 years under a tiny roof with no walls, and only a fence to keep dogs and trash out of their lot. To see these groups now with a church, a real church! To have something they can worship in every Sabbath, a place that can be set apart and holy, it just makes Sabbath that much more special.

This project taught me so much. Taught me more about working with members, clearly stating my goals and thoughts. It taught me never to underestimate God, EVER! It taught me that it's important to surround myself with people who share the same goals. I learned a lot from watching them work, and they learned a lot from watching me work. It was an opportunity I will never be able to forget. Seeing the commitment and drive of the church members, the community coming together, even the kids coming out to help before and after classes each day, was a blessing to me. I never would have thought that I could lead a project, or even less that God would call me to lead one. Who am I? I’m not anyone special. I don’t have a degree in architecture, or leadership. I’m nothing special. But to see God's plans for my life, not even just to build one church, but two! I’m not the most emotional person out there, but when I think of God using me… Calling me, I tear up. When I think of all the miracles He did for me, through me… I just can’t even understand why He would choose me. I’m sincerely humbled. This project has pushed my faith in more ways than I wanted, but it helped me grow. This project has given me more contacts, and an even bigger dream for my continued work in Colombia. I am just so thankful that God called me. I am so blessed!

I have so many more stories from this project that I could fill many, many pages with. Even though I will not be able to write down everything that I experience this trip, I will try to write down some other things that impacted me. This was just the story of the church projects, but I will try to share about the members and people that assisted in the project in a future blog. So stay tuned.