The interpreting marathon is over and I’m back at my desk in my home office in El Paso.
This picture was taken during the closing session of the final day, when Juan led a time of intercession. Prayers were offered in Korean, Tagalog, German, Spanish, Portuguese and English (in a variety of accents) as we worshipped our awesome Father and asked for His blessing and guidance.
Eida and I first met Juan in 1982 when we first went to Colombia to teach in the missionary training center. He was a member the first class of candidates. Juan has been a key member of the group that redesigned our mission into an international partnership of fields and agencies from all over the world. His classmate, Andrés Jiménez, also participated in this Forum in his capacity as Director for the field of Colombia. It’s amazing what God has done since we sat in a tiny classroom together 27 years ago!
On the closing day, the 8-year history of the development of the new working agreement was reviewed, questions were answered, and the delegates formalized their acceptance of the agreement by signing for the entities they represented – both sending countries and church-planting fields.
It was a real honor for my teammate Duff Gustafson and me, not only to be present for this historic occasion, but to assist in the process by interpreting for the speakers and translating into Spanish the collection of documents which make up the new working agreement.
Now it’s back to the daily business of moving my pile of text and video translation projects ahead, completing reports, and keeping our support team (that’s you) up to date. The first Spanish version of an excellent missions video was waiting for me to review when I got back to El Paso. More on that later. Pray that we’ll make good progress on getting this and many other resources into the hands of people who will use them to advance God’s kingdom.