In the past
fourteen months our team has traveled through every country of Central and South
America. This is twenty-one countries that
we have driven through since we left Washington on September 9th,
2011. Our team has included 44 men and
women from over ten different countries.
Our community was amazing, constantly growing in unity and family
through our extreme life of contrast and challenge. We carried the presence of God and ministered
in the slums, jungles, mountains, prisons, red light districts, local churches,
and much more. We traveled by car,
ferry, bus, plane, canoe, train and on foot.
God constantly revealed His faithfulness through times of need, danger,
blessing, challenge, tiredness, discomfort and comfort, sickness, and health,
in the unknown and unforeseen. Our faith
was stretched and our lives forever changed.
When God gave us
the vision for this trip and told us to go we were challenged in our faith and
a little scared but knowing God would have to meet us as we stepped out. It seemed impossible but those are the
circumstances that excite us the most knowing that we will get to see God manifest
His glory and presence in the places that we have no idea what we are
doing. As we went, the Lord revived and
refreshed churches, made Himself known in places where the Gospel had not been
preached, healed deaf ears, blind eyes, broken bodies, broken hearts, The lost
were introduced to their Savior and many lives touched and inspired for the
destiny the Lord has for them.
At times in our
journey our life and schedule became so intense that it caused a bit of strain
in our relationships. It seemed that
nearly every night we were scheduled to lead another church service, and
different types of ministry were scheduled throughout the days. Our hosts were thankful for our time with
them and wanting to utilize the few days we had but we were not able to
function like a normal short term team coming through. We were not just doing a two week intensive
trip and then going home to rest. This
was a lifestyle for us and we had to learn how to pace ourselves for the long
run so that we did not wear ourselves out. So at times we needed to take a few steps back
and remember what our journey was all about.
It is all about Jesus and if we are not fully abiding in Him and letting
the ministry come from the overflow of our intimacy with Jesus than often times
the activity could become straining for dead works in order to fulfill man’s
expectations. So we made it a goal to
have daily times set aside as a team to be in His presence worshipping Him and
listening to Him. We made an effort to
have regular Sabbaths set aside to just rest.
The measure of our unity as a team was usually strongly affected by the
dedication to seeking Him as a family on a regular basis. And the measure of the kingdom eternal
fruitfulness of our team was usually directly related to the measure of unity
we experienced amongst ourselves. 
As we
made this a constant goal and entered into covenant relationship as a family,
it seemed in every place that we went we were mostly commented on the love that
we had for one another and the joy on our faces. As we drew near the end of our journey
together we could all feel it in our hearts and it was so hard to even talk
about not being together anymore. We had
grown to love each other deeply and had been through so many challenges
and victories alongside of one another.
So recently through much tears we all have gone our separate ways and
now there is a great hope and expectation of what the future holds for each one
of us. More glory trips in other
continents, new ministries being birthed, destinies being formed and
unfolding. God is faithful.
As leaders
over this Iris Ministries team and this journey we were stretched and
challenged more than any other time in our marriage or ministry. We took far too few breaks and date nights. But we were constantly comforted by His
presence and He consistently was calling us to come away with Him to the secret
place so that we could refocus as we readjust our gaze to be steadily fixed
upon His face. Tanya is such a hero,
being pregnant for the last 9 months of the journey but choosing to continue as
long she could and the Lord enabled
her. Still often sleeping on church
floors, camping, and every other crazy place you could think to have to sleep,
she did not complain and was an example to us all through it. We are so glad the Lord guided us into this
adventure of faith and challenge and experienced incredible fruit inwardly and
outwardly and enjoyed the most, seeing the incredible growth and maturity of
all those on the team with us as they became amazing leaders that we grew to
really respect and look up to ourselves.
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