Update...

     Good morning. I'm just gonna get right to the point today. I'm gonna be as honest as I can with you all. This is John writing. I have been struggling in some since, for a few reasons. I know, as someone who knows people in the mission field and follows what they do I want to hear about what they are doing. Therefore I want to be able to give you all great feedback on what we are doing here in Puerto Rico. I want to share about all the people being saved, rehabs we are going into, missions we are on and evangelistic outreach events we are part of. However, in all actuality we are doing very little of that. We have our food handout once a month and that is the only regular thing we do concerning physical mission work. To be honest doing very few of those things is driving me nuts. I know what you must be thinking right now, but let me share with you what has been happening.
     God's ways are not my ways. Everything I shared with you above, that I had hoped to be sharing with you, are things that we thought we would be doing. We came down here not part of a church but part of The Church. No church sent us,however Seven Hills Church was our "sending" church, The Lord called us here. We were as some say, "Lone Rangers." To some this was crazy, to others this was amazing. Some thought we were nuts, others were shocked by our faith. The reality is it was a little of both neither of which are bad. Let me tell you a little back story.
     In Michigan I was never, "under" another ministry officially. I had no accountability for what I did. Not that what I was doing was wrong just that I had no one that would step in to tell me if I was doing it wrong, so I guess it could have been.  Most people I did ministry with thought the same way I did and acted in a similar manner as I did. Our church home in Michigan has gone through so many changes in the past 5-6 years that I do not have a strong relationship with any of our pastors, with the exception of the Global Outreach Pastor,Brian.Brian is more of my mentor than pastor.  Just when I thought I had a relationship they got let go or left. So needless to say, our home church had little to do with the ministry God has us working in and I was not held accountable to anyone there or was I under the leadership of any pastor. It may be that they really didn't know what to do with me as I can be rather radical for Jesus and do crazy stuff. Like walk to Washington DC to Pray for Obama and move my entire family to Puerto Rico with no money, no job and faith that God would provide, all because He said so. I was led by The Holy Spirit and I was good with that and still am. My leader is The Holy Spirit and my orders come from God. God has used me and my family in amazing ways because of our willingness to submit to Him and do as he asks. However, there comes a time in ones life where the Lord asks you to learn how to sit under the authority of a Holy Spirit led human pastor. Now, I must say this did not appeal to me at all! I did not want to sit under anyone who would hold me back from what God would have me do.
     Over the past 5 months our family has been through a lot. Trying to fit in, learn a foreign language, find a church, make friends, being apart from family, figuring out what God has us here for specifically, college classes for me, learning home school for the kids and Jennifer learning how to teach, and so on. God has been faithful through it all and we have all grown because of this. Over the last 3-4 months we have been attending The Center Church Puerto Rico. As we have stated before we fell in love the second we walked through the door and God told us that this was our home church her on the island. Through several conversations with pastor Efren and other leaders of the church it was clear that God wanted us to not only attend this church but be part of this church. We were excited! Pastor Efren approached Jennifer and myself to be part of the leadership team, we again were excited! God was giving us work! So after praying about this we accepted and became unpaid staff at CCRP as part of their core leadership team.  This is where I was challenged and growth began.
     As the weeks went by I started to see that CCPR had a vision for their church. A vision God had given them. I loved the vision. The vision was to plant three more campuses on the other three coasts of the island. The focus of these churches would be pockets of English speaking people who do not have a church to go to. There are very few actual English speaking churches on the island. When we were asked to pastor one of these churches or help plant all three we were very humbled. No one had ever asked us to do this before, nor had we ever done it. How would I pastor or plant a church? Little did we know God was about to teach us both a lesson, mainly myself. I started to realize that God had put us in a church with an amazing vision and they were not willing to budge from what the Lord told them. That is a quality many people do not have and I loved it. However, that meant that I had to stay within the vision God gave them! Once I realized this I was frozen. After a conversation with Pastor Efren, I told him that submitting to their vision would be hard for me because I have never needed to do that in the past. I did what God told me to do, not someone else. I was a little confused at what God was doing to say the least. Once I returned home Jennifer and I talked about what Pastor Efren and I had talked about and we both were still very confused and a little discouraged to be honest. How are we do do what God called us to do and continue to do things that God asks us to do if we are under the authority of Pastor Efren and the vision of CCPR? What if God asks us to do something outside of CCPRs vision? I was scared that I was about do move in a direction that would put a halt on the Holy Spirit in my life. ( I think I actually thought my actions could do that. Really John? Really?) With that being said, Jennifer and I prayed about it. God spoke very clearly to both of us at separate times. He told us that He would not ask us to do anything outside of the vision He gave CCPR for the season we are with them. God knows my heart and my willingness to be obedient at a moments notice. This does not men I will be lack in my boldness or passion for Jesus. God knows I will not relinquish my desire to serve him in bold radical ways nor is He asking me to do so. God asked me a question that shocked me to the core, "John, how are you going to lead if you are not willing to be led?"  Furthermore, although we are not doing much physical ministry work, there is a lot of internal work and spiritual growth happening. I wish I could share more amazing stories with you but the reality is God has just not opened those doors and this is not the season for that right now. God has us in a season of growth. I am learning to submit to Holy Spirit through Holy Spirit led leadership, to submit to God through the vision God gave another church and to realize that God uses other people to lead me and the Church. A friend of mine,Pastor Britton, said this to me and it hit home. "Being part of a spiritual family you have to understand that it is no longer you and the Holy Spirit, it is you, the spiritual family and the Holy Spirit and you all have to learn how to hear the Holy Spirit together."
     So this is what God has been doing and in part why we have been so lack on giving updates. I am sorry and ask for your forgiveness in that. We will try to keep you as up to date as possible but know that God is growing us and challenging us to learn how to lead from being led. You should know that when God says jump we will jump. Our orders come from God and not man. If this is ever jeopardized we will not stand for it. Some of you may not understand this, others of you may. However, it is not my job to make you understand but to follow God's voice and do as he instructs. I can only share what The Lord is doing in our lives. The Holy Spirit will guide the understanding. When God says our time is up under CCPR then we will leave. Until then, we are fully committed to the vision God has given them and what God is going to do while we are there and support them 100%.