Visas Granted!

Praises! Yesterday in San Francisco we were granted our Visas to Ecuador for 2 years!  Thank You so much for your faithful prayers!  We are getting so close to the send off! Only 23 more days...  Oh my goodness we have so much still to do!  We are visiting family a bit this weekend then finish up packing both our bags and the home we have been living in.  W still are in need of a few items to take with us if you feel led and able to help in any way... they would be incredible blessings to the ministry but we will be pleased with however God provides or does not provide.

Still need:
1.  Projector (mid-size, light weight enough to travel and portable but equipped for medium size group display)

2.  Digital Camera with Zoom

We could also use your support through regular prayer.  Our team is still being formed so keep each person that will comprise the Ibarra team in your prayers throughout this 27 month term.  When we have our full and complete team all together for the first time in Quito we will of course post pictures and link you to their blogs so you can read about the ministry from their perspectives as well.  We will also be putting together an Ibarra Team page that I hope you will follow as well.  We want to connect you as much as possible to what God is doing so that you may join us as you are able and be blessed as the body of Christ. 

Stay tuned because over the next 3 months things will be getting REALLY exciting!  For Thanksgiving this year we will share with you the inspiration of the Church in Cali, Colombia and finish up the year with our first greetings from Ibarra!  There are exciting times filled with lots of transition for us and the kids.  Please consider joining the Kids Prayer Team and commit to prayer for one month.  You can sign up by sending me an email and seeing more details at http://jesusadventure.blogspot.com/p/kids-prayer-team.html.  I will update our mailing address each time it changes. 

We LOVE you all!  We are so blessed to be on this crazy journey with you!  Grace and Peace from our Lord Jesus Christ to you, and may you always be experiencing the joy that comes from His daily blessings in your lives!

With Great Love,

The Williams Family

 

For One-Time or Monthly giving go to http://www.extremenazarene.org/Volunteer.aspx?ID=190

 

***

Urgent Prayer Requests

As we are readying ourselves over these final days in the US, there are some last things that we really need your help with..namely I am talking prayer.  We all know in reading the Bible that quite often the Lord reminds us that HE ALONE is the provider and the ONE IN CONTROL by acting in the moment when there is no question that what was accomplished could only have happened by God's provision.  It builds my faith more and more to see these amazing things happen.   I believe God is glorified and we grow closer when we ask faithfully for Him to meet our needs.  Join with us in a spirit of great FAITH for the ministry to Ibarra, Ecuador!

Please Pray for the following:
1.  40/40's: TOP PRIORITY! We still need 2-3 North Americans to partner up with our last couple of approved South American teammates.  Please PRAY that whoever God is calling to fill these positions would answer with boldness and that funding would come in miraculous ways.  If you know someone or are someone that is feeling called go to http://www.extremenazarene.org/FortyForty.aspx AND email us or Liz Waterman at lwaterman@extremenazarene.org. They need to be Approved, Funded and in Quito by August of this year.  WE do have some potential candidates attending the 40 Days program so keep them in prayer too.  God's timing is not always in line with ours, but His ways are sure higher!

2.  VISAS: We have finished compiling all the crazy documents and letters to apply for the "Religious Volunteer" type Visa to Ecuador.  There is a possibility of receiving entry for 1 or 2 years.  Please PRAY that all goes smoothly and that we receive the max of 2 years.  We are going to the LA Consulate today (we have had some trouble contacting them so created a back-up appointment in San Francisco for next week).  Hopefully we come home with Visas for everyone and if not, please pray for us as we head to San Francisco next Tuesday.

3.  FUNDS: Thank You all so much for supporting us along the way!!  Truly, truly your giving is amazing and  humbling.  We pray that the Lord faithfully provides for each of you  as you generously share your blessings with us as we serve in Ecuador.  It is no small miracle that by many giving little, a lot is accomplished.  Please pray that 5 more families would join us in monthly giving for $40-50 per month..  We have a small gap in our funding and I know God is faithful to complete the work He begins.  To sign up visit www.extremenazarene.org/williams

Cool News: We have connected with the Pastor that will be leading the new church plant for Ibarra!  His name is Yoan and has a wife named Astrid and a little boy about a year old named Yared.  We are so excited!  It looks  like will be living in the North Andean Work and Witness house in Quito with then as our neighbors until our deployment in November to Ibarra.  We are so excited to get to know them and coordinate ideas and plans for ministry over the next months during our team training.  God is pulling this all together!

PS: I have to mention that TODAY is our little Reese's 4th Birthday!  Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!!!

2012 in a Nutshell Video : )

For those of you that weren't able to make it to "A Taste of Paraguay" we are posting the slide show below.  It was so awesome working on this video, sifting through a gagillion photos of all the amazing people we met and ministered to as a team...all the faces of the people that came to volunteer...and the beautiful backdrop of South America that God has given to the people of Peru and Paraguay...just amazing. 

These photos in the slide show take me back to a year filled with stretching on all sides throughout our whole team and in the people that were ministered to.  Christ came to save and change the world.  When we go out in the name of Christ, that is exactly what happens... people are saved and all of us are changed.   The body of Christ is growing daily....literally.  Every day people are coming to know the Lord through the grace and mercy of God via the obedience and willingness of His people. 

Pastor Mark asked us if we felt like we had sacrificed a lot to join Extreme.  Cole answered perfectly...  at the time YES, we totally had an attitude of sacrifice for Christ.  I know in certain moments I felt that He was asking too much of me... Looking back on the last year we know we exchanged a good life heading in one direction for God's plan that was moving us in another.  I think it depends a lot on what we are measuring.  If our goal is safety, predictability, and stability then yes, we gave up a lot.  Where we are at now is very unpredictable.  On a daily basis we are trusting that the Lord will provide for our needs and the needs of the ministry and often the way God works is totally different than we expect.  When we look at how much we have grown, the front row seat to the miracles of international ministry, the new and amazing relationships we have formed with folks at home and on the field through the unity of the body of Christ, the things our kids learn that we aren't even teaching them... I would say we have saved our lives by losing them.  We only get this one life... we want to choose at every turn to follow Christ.  Crazily enough, He has called us far from home for now.  One day He may call us back to our home town and He might call one of you out here to the international mission field : )  (If He does, just GO!)

With eyes on Christ, we can see just how beautiful the other side of sacrifice really is.  (really, what can we sacrifice that is bigger than what God freely sacrificed for us?) We have said this before, the body of Christ IS THE PLAN.  When Christ ascended after the resurection, all of us were entrusted with this mission.  As we wait for the bridegroom to return, let us not be found wasting what we have been given, sitting idle, having forgotten our great first love.  Our lives are short.  The lives of those not yet saved are worth anything and everything we can give in exchange for that opportunity to share with them the hope in Christ Jesus.  Every moment we are given is for Him.  We live, preach, love, sing, laugh, move, give, and rest all for the Lord and thank God for the Grace that catches us when we all fall along the way because in our falling and struggle, God is working on His story and gracefully weaving us in.  If you aren't sure if you are in God's will in your life right now, or maybe you know you aren't... Pray for Him to speak clearly to you about where you are at, and then pray that you will want what He wants for you...that He will change your heart.  Pray for the strength and courage to trust in God's plan.  Sometimes we know His plan but find it hard to trust it and end up trying to make things happen on our own.  Trust in the still, small voice and know that He is God.  Follow Him wherever He leads, near or far.

 

In just 8 short weeks our family will pack up and head out once more to enter the mission field in Ecuador.  We are still looking to connect with those of you whom God is calling to join us through financial giving.  We have about 69% covered at this time and are trusting that God will provide the means for us to carry out this call.  I know He will.  If you are feeling led to give I hope that you will commit to do so and receive the blessing that comes from obedience.  We are so thankful to each one of you that love and encourage us along the way. 

www.extremenazarene.org/williams

for monthly or one-time giving

 

Grace and Peace always in Christ alone.

Who said anything about safe.?...

We have been so blessed to be home these past weeks. Among the most wonderful blessings have been Pastor Mark's sermons. God is working wonders everywhere in those who look to Him. These days in our world that is so focused on filling every emptiness with temporary satiations, it is quite natural to let ourselves carry on much in the same way. We forget to be transformed by the renwewing of our minds... we forget that the truth the world speaks of is hardly the truth at all and yet we fit our lives into this strange modern paradigm. If we could just live fully in each moment aware of Christ we would be both anchored and free... Free from anxieties, free from our "stuff", free to love, free to follow as Christ leads without fear...Anchored to REAL Truth in unwavering faith and confidence in life. We cannot put off God's purpose for each of our lives. If anything is worth doing it is worth doing well and now. We have to stop defining ourselves and our sense of accomplishment by our appearance, wealth, friends, job, our ability to avoid trouble and pain, by how long we can maintain a safe routine...

"Is he—quite safe?"..."Safe?" said Mr. Beaver ... "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

We all have the ups and downs of feeling strong, then not...feeling sure, then not. I think stepping out in faith has both pushed growth and exposed my weakness. I feel both confidence in the calling and a sense of total inadequacy. By far the coolest part is having confidence in He who sends us. Like all of the "heroes of the faith" we are quite inadequate for holy work without the Holy One.

We are getting back into gear as we are in the count down for Ecuador! We are about 10 weeks away from our flight to Quito and I am amazed how busy we have been and still are since being in the US for this short break. Our time home was unplanned but I can see exactly why the Lord has us here for this time. It has been a wonderful blessing to be with our loved ones and help out where we have been needed. That said, our hearts are definitely being tugged all the way down in Ecuador : ) The kids and I have been doing some reading at the library about the sweet people of Ecuador and are just more than eager to be a part of God's work there.

Right now we are getting things ready for our VISA application to Ecuador as missionaries, looking for the things we need to bring down there with us, praying a ton about our team that is also doing the same, as well as taking care of the day to day things here including kindergarten homework (way more than I remember!). Life is full no matter where we are!

For those of you that are within driving distance to Porterville, CA we are hosting an evening at Porterville Church of the Nazarene this Sunday April 7 at 5:30pm to share about our experiences in South America. We will have a presentation with hilights of the ministry, a slide show, some cultural items including "terere y sopa paraguaya" to share as well as discussing what we plan to accomplish as we head into Ecuador. I hope you come if you can squeeze it in! We were blessed to see Christ moving in the world through the body of Christ while we were down there and many of you have been vital parts of the blessings the Lord spread out through the people... come and receive the blessing yourselves. For those of you that are out of the area I will be posting the slide show and possibly the powerpoint so that you can check it out too : )

Porterville Church of the Nazarene
2005 Olive Ave Porterville, CA 93257
Sunday April 7 5:30pm - 7pm

As we are preparing for the next extended part of this journey we ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers. As full-time volunteers we are in total reliance upon the provision of God through His people to support the ministry in Ecuador. We are still looking for those whom God is calling to be our support as we devote our days to full-time ministry. My hope for you is that if God is indeed calling you to join us that you do so right away and with complete joy so that you may enjoy the blessing that comes from trusting in God's will at each turn. He has called us each to fill a purpose and has equipped us to accomplish it though sometimes we choose to say no. I remember when we were just beginning on this adventure and I kept feeling like I identified more with those that said "no" to God... like Jonah, or Zachariah who was struck dumb when questioning God's plan, even Moses tried to convince God that he was the wrong guy for the job... but we all know that God used these people in crazy amazing ways! In the end they each were compelled by the assurance they could not escape doing God's will, no matter how impossible or ilogical it might seem, is the only sure way to go...maybe not safe...but sure. They are there in the Bible to show us not so much about ourselves but a lot about God. He accomplishes through us, in spite of us. Be used by God!!!! Live to Worship! Join us if you should through prayer, financial support, or come to volunteer! At all costs do what the Lord is asking of you whatever that may be! And come hear about the cool stuff God is up to in Paraguay, Peru and Ecuador through Extreme Nazarene Ministries!

www.extremenazarene.org/williams




In His Love,

Kelly

End of the Year...

So here we are at the end of the year...not the end of the world after all...  and as a family we have had so many changes.  Since January we have lived in 5 homes in 4 cities in 3 countries.  Our luggage is beat.  We, on the other hand, though possibly a little beat as well, are so much stronger for having started on this journey that beckoned us to walk closer and closer with the Lord. 

My heart and head have been worked on so much these last months.  I have been pushed to give when my desire was to keep, asked to remain silent when I felt the need to justify, asked to leap where it seemed there was no place to land.  This is true: life is so short.  We are so sure of what we have, our abilities to maintain ourselves and families, to find our security in predictable things, but I am sure that this is not what our Lord has called us to.  I do not believe he asks everyone to literally leave their homeland for him, but I firmly believe that he asks each of us to leave for him alone our hearts uncluttered.  I do not believe this is totally easy. 

“Child,' said the Lion, 'I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy 

For each of us, the story is different.  The path may lead elsewhere, but the goal is always the same - that we would love the Lord God with everything, love others as ourselves and in so doing that we would know the God who is the beginning and end of all things, in whom all things exist, the God of Abraham, the God who came to us in the form of a tiny newborn baby in a great expression of Love only to die for us in a greater expression of Love.  This is always the point of everything.

So, with the Williams family, this year we got to be a part of God's plan all the way down here in Paraguay.  It has been tremendous.  Time and time again God has provided, through each of you through your giving of love, encouragement, finances, prayers and friendship.  We have been blessed also to be givers of love, friendship, encouragement, prayer and even through our material things we have here.  We have seen people deepen in their understanding and love for the Lord, we see the seeds of change planted in the community here, and that God is working through the church here and all over.  It is always the Lord who saves and guides his church and we are priveleged to be the workers. 

Thanks to wonderful friends and family many of our needs upon coming home are being met.  We have a home to live in near our church and school and Cole will be working with his grandfather and cousin for their busy season at Williams Nursery.  Our final days here in Paraguay have been filled with the fruit of friendship with contacts, church members, neighbors and fellow missionaries.  In reality, the early missionaries like Paul and Barnabas traveled around and spent a few weeks or months in cities and then moved along but keeping in touch with those new believers to encourage them as they went through the growing pains we all have as we figure out who we are in Christ. We are definitely leaving loved ones here, but we are able to keep in touch and love from afar. 

As we finish out the year, we thank you all with grateful hearts for your support.  It still feels so crazy to be walking where we are, in complete dependence upon the Lord, trusting in the work he is doing in us as well as how he works in you.  Thank You.  Thank You. Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

***

For year-end giving: www.extremenazarene.org/williams 

 

 

With Lots and Lots of Love and Cheer...

Grace and Peace to you.

 

The Williams Family

Cole, Kelly, Ted and Reese

 

 

 

 

 

God's fellow workers

Before I forget... Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

For us the heat is on!  We are right at the starting line for summer down here in Asuncion and I am pretty sure I will suffer much evaporation of my precious 75% water.  It will be a totally different Christmas to be sure...    I am laughing right now as I write this... crazy heat is not my favorite thing, but we are loving that God has brought us here.  God is funny too.  I am thankful that we are made in his likeness : )

I have some words to share that have been the words of the Lord to me for a few weeks now... If you can bear with its length...(and at the end I am sharing some details about the next leg of The Jesus Adventure!)

"What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames".  1 Corinthians 3:5-15

 

I can't read the Bible anymore without a million little connections popping up in my mind.  There is no unintended relation between one passage and another...Gods words to us are undeniably clear - We are the plan.  We are the body of Christ.  We must work together with him and with each other.  I love the wholeness of the words "for we are God's co-workers, you are God's field, God's building."  We are His fellow laborers who are to listen, obey and work in harmony in order to accomplish his perfect will.  We are also the field...the place where the work takes place, seeds are planted, the ground prepared through turning, digging and reforming.  We are also the building...God's temple, the end product.  It is beautiful and the complete description of our varied purposes that exist all at the same time in our journey.  We have the burden to reach others, to be yielding to all the different works God simultaneously is doing in us, as well as to be honoring and glorifying to Him as his precious and prized temple. 

And the beauty of the miracle in a tiny seed... I imagine the apparent simplicity on the inside of a small seed...they look blank with virtually no distinguishable marks.  Yet, the moment a seed is planted and then cared for by "God's fellow workers" the miracle inside the seed begins transforming it's very nature and appearance! No man on earth could design such a complete biological plan...this alone is the handiwork of our creator.  Something so plain and common as a seed...and God has designed in nature a multitude of ways for a seed to become planted...some seeds are sticky and attach to the fur of a passing animal, the wind carries others that are meant to be airborne, others are pleasing for food and fall during a harvest.  There is no mistake in the completeness of the analogy the Lord gives us when he speaks of planting seeds.  Let yourself carry on entirely in imagining the life of a seed and how it comes to be planted.  Meditate on the beauty of God's plan!  I believe God designed nature also as a reflection of who He is and how He works...and that is why there are so many comparisons between God's kingdom and vines, branches, fruit, harvest...  God's plans, creation and character are profound. 

What kinds of things are we building...?

Of course the other awesome parts of this passage are the materials with which we can build upon the foundation that has been there from the begining.  When we are talking about building in God's kingdom there is only one foundation that can be laid and that is Jesus Christ- BUT we can build shabbily or strong upon that foundation.  We can be and invest in the building of others into strong, lasting, fire-proof, fire-tested temples for the Lord.  If we labor without truly giving oursleves to the labor or give in work only the things that don't cost us very much, the end result will be buildings that are burned up with fire...only the bare foundation will last.  It is very easy to appear to be building, especially to others, even to toil much in our building.   But, it will be revealed to be nothing if we build with things that do not last.  We have got to build always with our whole heart, with our best attitude, a most sincere and generous spirit...always with love and obedience in faith.  What kind of buildings are we constructing? Clearly we should each desire to be a temple of gold for God... the most valuable, costly, strong and pure temple and equally desire to build as god's fellow workers into the lives of others so that they too can be strong and enduring.   

Oh I love the depth of God's word...  it is always complete and self-supported. 

Whew! And now for some further details about the future of The Jesus Adventure...
We have been so very blessed in this call to serve in international missions.  Wow, was it a crazy transition for us, but to be sure it was and is God's plan for us now.  Our project here in Paraguay is finishing up next year and our team of 40/40's will all be heading home for at least a small break before returining to the field in some form or another.  We ourselves will still have another year left in our committment to Extreme.  After much prayer and seeking, we have committed to begin again as Cluster Support for a new team of 40/40's that is heading to Ibarra, Ecuador next year!  (just northeast of Quito)

 

We are very excited for this next assignment!  We will be starting next June with the 40-Day Experience followed by theology/language training with the 40/40's and ministry training in Cali, Colombia and then off to Ibarra to invest ourselves with the planting and watering of seeds and the building of God's temples!  Ecuador is going ot be very different than our experience here in Paraguay.  The culture is very much more like the Peruvian culture and it has a much cooler climate than Paraguay.  The city of Ibarra is in the Ecuadorian Andes with a lake and two volcanoes nearby flanked by the Amazon Basin on the East of the Andes (location of events from The End of The Spear movie).  We are bummed out that the timing has not worked out for a short-term group from PortNaz and other interested friends to visit Paraguay while we are here, but I believe you will all be very much blessed in coming to Ecuador to see what God will be up to there!  Pray about it and start planning! 

 

Meanwhile...work in Paraguay is trucking along : )  The church here is growing, we are growing, our bible studies are growing and evolving into beautiful relationships and deepening walks of faith.  God is constantly speaking and is in control of each delicate seed.  We are at our mid-way point for the poject and it is absolutely amazing to have been able to count with some accuracy how many people have heard the gospel through the work of our team here...  Over 2000 lives have been touched with the gospel through outreach events and weekly evangelism!  In addition, each week our 40/40's are pursuing and discipling about 240 different individuals through weekly bible studies and friendships!  This sunday we had 17 people baptized, and two new home bible study groups are opening this week! Please keep our church and team in prayer.  The last months of a project need to be focused on the transition between missionary leadership and local leadership...this is where we need to really see the seeds budding.  And we shall not forget...it is God who makes things grow.  It is He who has always sustained His word and His church and this is where we place our hope.  Build with us on the foundation placed in Paraguay through your faithful prayers!! 

Here is the slide show some of you saw in Sunday School last week, and other of you may be seeing in the near future during Sunday School : ) 

 

We are also working on some Picassa albums for those of you that don't frequent facebook... Hopefully these work...I am a little new to some of this.

Picassa Album Paraguay 2   and   Picassa Album New Folder

Well that is our super long and long overdue blog for now : )  Keep us in prayer as we start figuring out how to prepare for Ecuador and as we continue in ministry in our community here in Paraguay.   We love you and don't forget about you even though we are far away...  We will be home soon for a break next year around May and June!! We will make plans as the time gets nearer : ) Lots of Love dear friends and family!!!  Big Blessings from South America!!!!

Grace and Peace to each of you,
Kelly

 

I am a disciple.

Oh dear friends...

We are super excited to share some of the neat changes in Extreme Nazarene Ministries! The new project name is Extreme South America and includes our current project (Extreme Paraguay) but also includes several new cities, new teams, new ways of preparing, sending and multiplying God's kingdom. It is pretty neat that in the midst of the world's financial crisis, God's work is not slowing down one bit : ) But HE is like that... defying our logic all the time and teaching us to think His thoughts after him.

You can check out some of the new opportunities to GO, GIVE and PRAY.

Some of the hilights include:

~ A new 40-day program in Quito, Ecuador (the soon to be the new Extreme Nazarene headquarters) which includes an intense time of fasting, prayer, service and theology for anyone interested in joining XSA or interested in Spiritual Enrichment...

~ Expanded opportunities for joining the XSA project in a huge variety of roles for every type of talent, passion, calling, age...and location! There is a lot you can do right from your home in the US if you have a call to missions but not necessarily the international mission field...

~ With the new 40/40 structure, one may earn a BA in Intercultural Studies and complete all the requirements for ordination within the Church of the Nazarene WHILE serving as a missionary...

~ A new recruitment program specifically to mobilize South Americans that are called to missions that includes an interview/application process, work with the local pastors and leaders to facilitate financial support and encouragement from the sending church on behalf of the missionary, and training in missions.

~ Extreme Nazarene Ministries will eventually be expanding ministry "to the ends of the earth" in the years to come!

Extreme Nazarene is doing such an awesome job at getting people out into the field that would ordinarily have no idea where to begin, helping people that are called to give get connected with the variety of projects and people that are available to support, and opening the door for people all around the world to engage in missions not only within their country but to shift from a missions recieving church to a missions sending church! It is actually quite amazing to see the local leaders being raised up to carry on the ministry of the church in their area but also that there are people being called to missions out of these very same churches! Right now, our team in Paraguay consists of 3 Brazilians, 3 North Americans, 1 Venezualan and 1 Paraguayan. It is pretty neat to see the way that the body of believers exists unified in Christ!

SO...We are so excited to be working with XSA! We will for sure keep you all updated as God leads our family in this amazing journey!