Love I Try to Follow: Big Unknown

I am not really sure who reads my blog but I would guess that my regular readers have at least some clue that I am on a mission team planning on moving to Chile next year to do church planting. I also would guess that you have heard about the earthquake (and huge aftershocks) that have rocked Chile lately and caused a lot of destruction and left a large portion of the population homeless.

I have chosen not to write much about this on here because my main answer to questions I receive is "I don't know." I don't know if everyone I know there is ok or what their situations are. I don't know what this changes for our team and our plans. I don't know how this is going to affect our housing hunt when we arrive. I don't know what condition Concepcion or surrounding areas will be in. I don't know what our role will be in the effort to help those in need. I just don't know. When I do know, I'll let you know. Until then, please pray for recovery for Chile and wisdom for our team.

What I can say is that I am more concerned for the people of Chile, their loss and their suffering than I am for the unknown of my own plans. It hurts me to think how fearful they must be and how much pain they must be in. It hurts me to think of those I know and those I do not know yet, living in tents and running for open space every time the earth continues to shake. It hurts me to think of the destruction of the beautiful country, the people and city of Conce.

Despite this I know that God is working. I believe the country will rebuild and be stronger for it. I believe God is using the Christians of that country to serve their neighbors instead of loot them. I believe there is goodness and love in the hearts of the people and that will help them rebuild. I believe God has a plan for our team in this tragedy even though I do not know it yet.

I have a tendency with natural disasters to let them consume me and I could easily see that happening with this situation because it is so personal to me. I plan on keeping up with the news and with my friends down there but it will not rule my life here and now. Until I know more I plan on not discussing the earthquake much on my blog. If you want to hear more or talk to me about it I would love that but my blog is moving on.

Despite my sadness my life here is still going on and I am going on with it. Please do not think that because I am not blogging about the earthquake it means that I do not care and am not making preparations for what this means for my future. It just means that I need to think and talk about other things and allow God to reveal his plan in time. Spending all my time worrying about everything will not help. Conce is different now than it was when I last visited but it will also be different when I arrive than what it is now so part of preparing for the future is waiting. Please pray for this time of waiting.

On that note, our team had a super fun pizza/game night last night. Here are a few pictures from our evening.