Identification with Isaiah

Walking among the ruins of Antigua every day, I have begun to identify with Isaiah 40:6-8

"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the Word of our God stands forever."

The vast and ancient structures of this city, each ornately crafted with painstaking detail, are not but a whisper of their former grandeur. They yearn to be taken seriously, but numerous earthquakes and the march of time have turned them into shadows of what they once were. The men who commissioned them have come and gone, and their physical legacy is a decaying ruin that, in another 400 years, will have completely vanished.

My pursuits on earth can be just as temporal as these buildings, but what an incredible comfort to be reminded that God never changes and neither does His love for us. I was born and someday my body will die, but the promises of Jesus Christ and the offer of life in Heaven are eternal.

Antiguan weather has taken a turn for the stunning. It has been crisp in the mornings with brilliantly clear afternoons and the different shades of gray and white in the swirling clouds are framed by a golden lining. Even though we are missing out on the colors of fall (my favorite season...) I will take more comfort a month from now when Guatemala is still green, it will be frigid further up north!

We have a new Korean friend, Gina, who has moved into the Cueller family's home with us for the next two weeks. Aaron, Stacey, and I were able to share with her about why we were going to South America as missionaries and how the work that Jesus Christ has done in our lives compels us to go and to share with others. It was a fantastic night of conversation. Please pray for more opportunities to show Gina and the people of Antigua just how much my Lord loves them.

I will be posting again in a few days. To those of you who have shot me an email and continued in your prayers for me, your efforts have been so very much appreciated. It means so much to know that I am being prayed for during this experience. Keep sending me your updates!

Awaiting His Return,
Ryan

Getting my feet wet... or something like that.

Alright, so Antigua is pretty much fantastic. The pace of life is just slow enough to be relaxing but not so slow that it is boring. There are coffee shops and art everywhere. Museums dot the city and the streets are all cobblestone with matching wrought-iron lamps. Sometimes I feel like I walked into a Charles Dickens novel. Outside of the two block radius where the tour buses run is where Antigua really pulls you in to stay.

We are surrounded by 3 volcanoes, only one of which is active. They said earthquakes are pretty common, usually one or two a month, so having another on top of the first one we felt will be an adventure! If you would like to see more photos of Antigua, please click on the link here to see the Facebook album. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2279217&l=96367&id=16805052

The home I live in is not really a home so much as an international house for language students. I love the setup and I think I got the good end of the deal. For now, I live with two girls from the US, both of which are leaving today to go do a couple months of volunteer work out in the villages and a Catholic priest from Korea. Everyone calls him “Padre”, and he doesn’t speak a word of English. It is really neat to think that we all sit down around the dinner table and none of us is communicating in our native tongue. He has been here for ten months and will be here for two more, so I am really excited to be able to pick his brain about the syncretism of Catholicism and Animism in Latin America.

Guatemala right now is experiencing the end of their rainy season, so it has been pretty wet most days, but the winter brings lots of blue sky, and they say the season should end next week or so. Its already a bit crisp and chilly at night, so it is perfect outdoor cafe weather. It is so beautiful the way the clouds swirl around the mountains with the steep slopes of the lush jungle and abundant flowers as a foreground. I had forgotten how blue the sky actually is.

We go to class in the mornings from 8-12 and then have the rest of the day off. The school we attend is one-on-one tutoring and the school offers cultural activities every day of the week such as visiting ancient ruins or museums, hiking up a volcano to roast marshmallows over lava, or going to a coffee mill. I was able to see the volcano erupt some from my roof and we had a small earthquake later the next day, so there are a lot of new experiences going on. My professor’s name is Mirian and she is hilarious. She picks at her fingernail polish a lot, but we'll work on it. I have already been able to share my testimony with her and tell her about Christ as part of my practice, so the Lord is really blessing things already.

Even though I am here as a missionary, you would be surprised how easy it is to become complacent down here. It is so easy to want to go out and discover a new part of the city, find a new cafe that I can escape to, explore an ancient ruin, or go pursue relationships for the sake of meeting new people (there are droves of young Europeans here with awesome accents. Sometimes I secretly wish I had one). Continue to pray for me to be intentional and to be always mindful of the task that Christ has given me. When I do get into the Word, all I can think about is why in the world I feel I could live life without it. Then the "Nation of Israel" in me forgets it as I look outside and see the ample opportunities on the slops beneath me and it all flies out of my mental window. Lame.

Missing all of you. Please continue to pray for me and update me on what has been going on in your lives!

Awaiting His Return,

Ryan

Estoy Aqui!

We are here!

I don't have hardly any time until I start my first class, but we all made it to Antigua with all of our luggage and all of our limbs intact! Antigua is one of the most impressive places I have ever been. It has so much character and so much life to it. We are in a small valley surrounded by three volcanoes and the jungle, so the scenery is spectacular. Only one of the volcanoes is active, but I got to see it erupt a bit yesterday afternoon from my balcony, and as I signed on to the internet, we had a small earthquake, so the day has been rife with new experiences. The city was one of the earliest settlements by the Spanish, so the ruins from the 1600s are more than impressive. It is raining here today, but today is supposed to be the last day of the rainy season, so we will be having awesome weather the rest of the time.

I live with a family that boards students at the school, so I eat meals with 5 other people. It is such a great start to everything. As is customary with Latin culture, I am late for class, so I need to go! I promise to post again by this weekend!

Please continue in your prayers for me and the other 13 missionaries here that we would be given opportunities to share Christ with our families.

Awaiting His Return,
Ryan

The Inbetween Stage

Hello All!

I apologize for the lack of posting... I promise to be more judicious in my efforts in the upcoming weeks and months!

I had my commissioning service at my home church of Henderson Hills this evening and it was just another reminder of the concluding and wrapping up that is taking place in my life. As the first round of my friends from training leave for the field in about 4 hours, I am still having to remind myself that I am not here at home to get comfortable or "hang out", but to say goodbye for a while and to reflect on the change that is coming. It is easy to talk about going to Peru and Guatemala, nodding my head with a smile and saying how excited I am to go. The enthusiasm is genuine and the calling is true, but I need prayer for the stretching that God will do in me over the next two years. Whether it is a cultural adaptation, a language barrier, or simply realizing that I am not the center of the universe, my world and my perception of it is about to be radically altered.

One thing that the Lord has been teaching me is that I will not be adequate in ministry. His work will not be done by anything that I have to offer. My personality can't get it done, my smarts won't cut it, and any perception of leadership that I hold will be tried and will fail. I have been learning to claim the promise of II Corinthians 3:15, which says "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God." The pronouns "I", "my", and "me" is where my perception of ministry is tainted. The Lord is reminding me that all He calls us to is faith and obedience, and He will reap the harvest. The day that I think I have anything to offer is the day that I disqualify myself for ministry. Please pray that this knowledge would become a reality in my life. Pray that I would cling to the promise that the Lord will sustain me if I would but abide in Him.

If you would like to receive my newsletter or you or your family or sunday school would like to partner with me in prayer, please email me at Rockchalkryan@gmail.com. I would sincerely love to hear from you.

6 more days until I get on the plane!

Awaiting His Return,
Ryan