Four, Three, Two, …

Four, Three, Two, One….One year of training left to go! Sometimes it seems as though time doesn’t move fast enough. Yet for those who have slipped into a Christless eternity, I’m sure it seems as though time was but a vapor.
I remember thinking during my first semester of training with NTM that four years of training seemed like an eternity. I was “fresh” off the field of Brazil where I grew up and where I had personally seen the faces of men and women who lived in complete spiritual darkness. Four years just seemed like too long to let these people wait to hear the good news; and besides, I didn’t want to be in school for another four years.
By the end of my two years of Bible School it was clear to me why NTM had such an extensive training program. It was for people like me who thought they had it all together, but really didn’t have a clue how little “thought” they actually had! My two years of Bible school where hard, yet transforming. I envy those who now have that opportunity to take two whole years to study the word of God as they sit under awesome discipleship teaching. I can’t imagine undertaking this task without having the truth I learned there.
My third year of training was no exception either. Right away they began to fill my belt with tools for cross cultural church planting. You’re probably thinking the same thing I did, “cross cultural what?” That entire year I began to slowly understand the true nature of the very thing I thought I wanted to do! Somewhere in the midst of it all I was struck by an ironic thought that only proved how poorly I knew my own desires…“Here I am embarking on a life long mission to plant tribal churches, when I myself have never been an integral part of a local body of believers – a church!”
Remarkably, that year the Lord GAVE me a small church in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania. They took me under their wing and made their nest my home – my home church! As with every hatchling, they nudged me out of the nest with their blessings and on to the next phase of training.
So here I find my self at language school, not one, two, or three years later, but four years later! To add insult to injury I’ve been given the opportunity to stay on for an extra semester of linguistics. Yet, somehow that doesn’t seem like such an unpleasant necessity anymore. The scenery in my heart has changed, and now as I look on at the ever nearing bend in the river I only wish I had more time to prepare. But I know that just around that bend, men and women lie with empty hearts, aching to be filled with the Living Water they have never even heard of. To that end I press on.