Running the Race!

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing i do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14. (NIV)

Now as of last Saturday I finished the book of Philippians with the Youth Group. Which going through the book has been a great blessing and a growing experience. The exact thing I taught on it seemed like I went through that same week. It was like the Lord was testing me to see if I was truly living what I preached. In the context of each teaching I saw that I was going through a similar thing like Paul was going through. Even though I know it wasn’t as intense as what he went through but; the Lord was showing me how to apply it to my life personally and see Him do it through me. I have learned that no matter what, that I need to continue to run the race that is set before me. Always looking to Jesus!

Now the cool thing about this is for the past 2 1/2 weeks I have been training for a short 8k run in lima. Which I just ran on Sunday, no I didn’t win 1st place but I had a great time. It’s cool because in training and even running a race you can so easily apply it to our Christian walks. Even though it is hard and so many times you want to give up, even when you are so close to the finish line you feel you just want to stop. They say and even from experience the last mile of a marathon (Full marathon 26.2 miles) can be the hardest but when running it you always look to the finish line; the goal! And even not placing doesn’t matter to you all that matters is finishing, and what great joy there is when doing that, to say I finished, I did it, I did the best I could. And in a marathon no matter what place you get you get a medal. So enough on that what I was going to say is…….

You are probably wondering, “what are you doing in Lima, I thought you were in Iquitos.” Well Albert and I have decided to take a short break, well sort of. Albert is taking a class at the Bible College and I am just visiting friends, helping out with various things at the College and going to different ministry’s. And so far it has been a blessing being here seeing old and new faces and being apart of what is going on here. We will be here in Lima will almost 3 weeks and head back to Iquitos on the 8th of Oct. just in time to get in the routine of things again and get ready for the students to come for there mission trip.

Also one of the cool things about me leaving was that I asked two of the youthes to help take over while I was. Jesus will be teaching this Saturday for the first time with the youth, and Julio is taking over all of the Sunday night prayer meetings and leading worship for that and the youth group. As well Pastor Jose will be teaching the other two Saturdays that I will miss. But it is such a blessing to see the Lord work and raise up leaders in the youth. I know it is just a start but the Lord is going to do great things through it and even through them as they put there trust in the Lord.

Prayer Request:

1. Our time in Lima to be fruitful!

2. The ministry in general in Iquitos (We are not there for 3 weeks)

3. Continual provision for the church in Panguana

Praise Reports:

1. Veronica is out of the hospital and is doing good.

2. Soon I will be an Uncle 10 times (next year) Wow thats a lot!!!!!

PS. Don’t forget to check out my recent pictures I put new ones up.

~ by walking4jesus on September 24, 2007.