Hola,
Ready for the last lap of my return home in a train Madrid-Malaga. It’s been an exciting 16 days. I feel very honored and thankful for the privilege of working alongside each of you, the team that has worked in the SportLife material we have been testing and our prayer warriors.
In a good “faena” (labor), a torero (matador) gets offered the bull’s two ears and the tail and he walks off the arena through the main gate over the shoulders of his cheering fans*.
All that goes to Jesus! May those ears and tail be a good picture of an abundant sowing and reaping harvest!
All that goes to Jesus! May those ears and tail be a good picture of an abundant sowing and reaping harvest!
*Read below Reid's last post and the Bullfighting analogy will make sense :-).
Praying with you for Jessie, NiHoi and Luke, still there at Gold Camp and for Reid, Se Yu, Luke and the Thai and Singaporean teams going to the SEA Games.
Olé!
Rubén
Greetings from Atlanta!
Carolyn and I are home - and mostly in our right minds. So far we’ve eaten one steak, two Mexican meals (without rice), a couple bratwurst and one Chic-Fil-A. I turn my head away when I drive by Asian restaurants.
Our four-month project will be wrapping up in 36 hours. I could fill pages with the faithfulness of God in bringing this about. But the first page would have to be about the faithful prayers of so many of God’s people. Thank YOU for walking with us for nearly a half year and praying open the doors that let the Holy Spirit move among the souls of hundreds of the best athletes in the country of Myanmar.
When I was in Myanmar in January, with Brad and Adrienne, I once made a comment to Brad that I was seeing our project in the Gold Camp kind of like a bullfight. I’m not sure why, but this image kept playing in my mind throughout the four months. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a bullfight. The fight takes place in three stages. In the beginning the bull is let into the ring and he kind of goes crazy - smashing into the walls, trying to knock the padded horse over. During this phase the “Picador” uses a long lance to weaken the muscles in the bull’s neck. Not only does this make him weaker, but it causes the bull to focus on what’s happening. He’s no longer disengaged and charging at everything that moves. He begins to focus on just one thing. And this is what we did in the beginning when we introduced a very new concept to the athletes - their SOUL. Suddenly they were confronted with something they had never thought about before - an eternal spirit within them.
The second phase of the bullfight is carried out by three “Banderillas”. They each plant two barbed sticks in the shoulders of the bull - designed to both agitate the bull and yet further weaken him. The majority of our time in the Gold Camp was centered around challenging the values and life philosophies of the athletes. Our talks were designed to “agitate” their thinking and at the same time “weaken” the distance and barriers that existed between us (the teachers) and them (the learners).
In the third phase…enter the “Matador”. We all know what this guy is about. The bull has been prepared to such a point that the Matador can finally draw his sword from behind the cape and make the final thrust. And this is what we were waiting to do for several months. A total of 24 of our staff and associates from 6 countries worked diligently to prepare the “bull” for the right moment. In the last few weeks we started introducing deeper and deeper spiritual challenges. I watched the faces of the athletes as our staff taught and shared about spiritual life. I actually saw heads nodding at the mention of a personal God and Creator. They continued to nod when the name of Jesus was brought in.
And then we came to the final week - last week. It was time to draw the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. It was time to present the gospel of Christ to the athletes. Our last two staff, Ruben and Jessie, gave the final message to the teams and shared, through their testimonies, basically the whole gospel message. And check this out - Ruben is from Spain - the land of bullfights. Jessie is Dutch, but has been living several years and serving on our staff team in Spain.
Please pray that this sword will pierce as far as the division of soul and spirit into the hearts of many of these athletes.
Ruben leaves in 36 hours, which will officially end the project. Jessie stays another 3 days and will just wrap up relationships. One of our project members (Luke) returned for a second “tour” at the camp. The Myanmar basketball team asked Luke to return to be their coach for the last weeks before the Southeast Asia Games take place. You can hold Luke up in prayer through June 16 - the end of the Southeast Asia Games.
It’s not the end…….
Blessings,
Reid
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