Carney's preparations for serving in South America

Thanks for checking out our blog! Here is where we'll chronicle the "learning opportunities" God provides for us as we seek His will in partnering full-time with Christian Veterinary Mission in Bolivia

24 December 2012

God--Ultimate Puzzle Doctor

Puzzled? The body of Christ is an amazing collection of unique characters--it is a bit puzzling!   Each piece is fitted together with care to make a glorious scene.  What happens if one is missing or turned backwards?
 Like a puzzle, we each have our own role to play in sharing the picture of God's story. We aren't all sky or eyes or grass or whatever--each piece is unique.  Even better, though is that we start our as blank cardboard of a shape and God creates a masterpiece as we allow Him to paint our lives in His masterpiece and be placed where He can best use us.
If we resist or ruin the piece that we are, God's purpose can still be fulfilled.  He can work in a few ways when that happens--repaint us and use us in the same place, or if we aren't willing to fulfill His purpose at that time, a new piece can fill the space we left.
 I recently ran across a puzzle piece replacement service on the web (puzzle doctor).  You send them the pieces around the missing one and they recreate the shape of the piece and custom paint the remainder to match the puzzle.  This is a metaphor of the second way God can work around our disobedience.  God's will shall be accomplished, but it takes a bit longer having to rework another piece to fit where one already was.  How much better if we, the bruised and disobedient piece allow ourselves to be found, cleaned and returned to the place God created for us?
Shine your part of the picture brightly and with joy that you are right where God wants you.  If you aren't, allow Him to clean you and restore you to His great plan!

11 December 2012

Photo Card

Picture Joy Christmas
Turn your favorite photos into your favorite Christmas cards!
View the entire collection of cards.

08 December 2012

Our December Update Letter--click to see in HTML
Hurried Humbug!

Christmas songs lilted on the air and trees twinkled with lights.  Christmas is here! Oh, wait, it began in October.  I was very tempted to complain about the commercialization of Christmas and the long wind-up to the event, and about how we miss so many important moments of life by starting Christmas essentially as soon as summer ends. Convicted.

How long did God prepare mankind for Christ’s birth?  Since the beginning of creation we have been told about God’s plan of redemption—look at all the prophecies!  I guess complaining about Christmas coming too early is not really fair.  God desires that we live every day in expectation of His coming!  The caution is to ensure we are enjoying the moments of today while we look forward with eager anticipation.

It feels like our family has spent an eternity planning and preparing for life.  We have been nearly a whole year in this deputation process.  Some days it feels like forever with our move nowhere in sight, while others feel like the year has flown by.  As we have been able to see more extended family over the holidays it seems to come in a rush.  We are marking all of the “lasts” for a while and really striving to live each moment here fully, not always planning and wishing and thinking about arriving in Bolivia.

Our much anticipated arrival is soon we hope, but it doesn’t end there!  We continue to look to Jesus’ example in this aspect as well.  The story of Christ doesn’t end with His arrival and ours won’t end there either.  Jesus spent time learning the language and culture of Israel well before beginning His official “ministry.”  That is what we plan to do as well—language and culture acquisition are critical to our effectiveness.  Wise men from far away lands came to visit Jesus during this time, so hint, hint, you can come visit us too. (You don’t have to bring frankincense, but some baking soda would be appreciated!)

Enjoy the preparations as much as the event! The decorations and arrangements don’t have to be perfect (Jesus wasn’t a planned c-section at the best hospital in town), so enjoy time with people celebrating relationships more than perfect decorations and meals.

Pray with us that this Christmas will bring opportunity for all of us to share the joy of Christ with others.

We are progressing steadily in our budget raising process—please pray for our patience in these preparations.  We want each meeting with people to bless them as well as us and the Bolivians.  Pray about partnering with us on a regular basis.  Pray too for our family as we begin our goodbyes over the next few months.

We wish you a joyous Christmas!


Caleb and friends enjoying a chilly hike


08 November 2012

Draw him in

     He drew a circle that shut me out-
     Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
     But Love, and I had the wit to win:
     We drew a circle that took him in!
                             Edwin Markham


Caleb and I have been working on poetry this week.  I thought I would post about Rudyard Kipling's "If", but I figured everyone memorized that at one point.  I think we will work on memorizing it next week.  So, instead I found this great one by Edwin Markham.
How well do we use our wit emboldened by Love (notice the capital in the poem) to draw people in?  Christ calls us to do just that!  Together with Love (Christ), we do win and are able to share with people the incomprehensible joy that we have in Christ.
We are called to love one another, even if we are shut out--pray for those that have called us names (Matthew 5:11-14) and find a way to draw our circle around them.

03 November 2012

Cleaning out the junk

We are nearly completely moved out of our house and in to our snug little apartment!  Today we spent cleaning out the hay loft to create a "hideout" for Caleb and his buddies.  After that Caleb decided he wanted to cook.  We baked baguettes and made ratatouille--yum!
What does this have to do with our lives and ministry? Well, it is just the next stage of our life I guess.  We have cleaned out all our sentimental things and random things of life. Finally, there is the spiritual insight we have been waiting for!
What worldly baggage do we take before the throne?  Have we taken the time and emotional energy to sort through it all?  As we toss out, yard sale, recycle things we have clung to for years (do I really need a sweater from high school or bank statement from 1993?), I wonder how many idolatrous ideas and pointless things clutter my brain like our basement!  Pray that God will help us all to pare down our lives to keep Him first in everything!
Pray for us tomorrow as we have a luncheon at our church and present our ministry needs.  Also, pray for more opportunities to share our story and encourage partners.

01 October 2012

Avengers as a cultural communication model

Iron Man is the Ugly American!  We have been at the Center for Intercultural Studies for 2 weeks now and boy, does it change your perspective on life.  David and I watched the Avengers last night with a classmate and the whole time I kept noticing all the blunders we have learned about in class.  Tony Stark may be the most noticeable and stereotypical "American" with his post-modern philosophy, loud music, and incessant movie references (to people frozen in ice or from other planets that would NOT get them). 
In other words, after 2 weeks of diligent work in class, I think it is time for a movie day--I'd even be willing to write a paper on it!
Actually, this class is really interesting.  We live with 34 other adults and 20 kids on campus and are having a blast during our free times watching the kids play and developing relationships with other missionaries from many sending organizations.  There is a lot of critical thinking homework, but it sure shows how amazing God is! 
I am excited, but won't bore you with the details!  Looking forward to applying all this in Bolivia ASAP!

04 September 2012

The fishermen's sheep

At CVM Shortcourse >100 veterinary and related folks gathered for worship and learning about long-term, short-term and workplace ministry.  Wow!  Always a great time.  There was also a workshop on some tools used in poverty alleviation by Dr. Ravi Jayakaran-great speaker and man!
One of the teachings that stuck with me though is about Peter with Jesus after the resurrection. You know, "Feed my sheep...take care of my lambs...feed my sheep." What did Jesus ask at the beginning of His ministry?  "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men."  Jesus met them where they were, at the sea and spoke in metaphors they understood (fishing) and then developed them into the men he wanted them to be--shepherds.  If He had started talking to them about sheep in the beginning, would they have listened? 
Take-home message? Meet people where they are and find a redemptive analogy that applies to their lives (this applies to our neighbors in the US as well as a new tribe).  Don't speak churchese to them!  Fishermen don't understand sheep!
Wow, I have been terrible at this blogging thing this summer! It has certainly flown by. To recap our adventures, we spent 4th of July at Yosemite, the rest of July and August working like crazy while Dr. Oller had a beautiful baby girl, then a quick trip to Kansas City to visit Hollie and attend CVM Shortcourse (more about that in a minute). Tomorrow we head to Seattle to the Christian Veterinary Mission home office for a board meeting and our psych eval. We'll be home for a week, then off for a month to CIT in NC for cultural training. Whew! Oh, we are getting some homeschool done in that timeframe too.

29 May 2012

Why so many birds?

After the birdfeeder post, I began to wonder what we could learn from the birds and the great variety of species.  I realized I needed to know how many birds man has classified (I'll bet there are some species we have never even seen).  So from www.birding.com here are the stats:
"There are over 10,000 species of birds in the world. About 925 have been seen in the U.S. and Canada. About 1,000 have been seen in Europe. By far the largest concentration of bird species are found in South America. Over 3,200 species have been seen there. In Colombia, Bolivia and Peru the species count for each country tops 1,700. Here are some very general figures for the species count for each continent:
3,200 South America
2,900 Asia
2,300 Africa
2,000 North America (from Panama north + Caribbean)
1,700 Australia + surrounding islands
1,000 Europe
65 Antarctica"

Wow!  Mindboggling, isn't it?  I am no orinthologist, but really, 65 species in Antarctica?  I wonder if I have seen 65 species in my life (excluding zoos I guess).  Last week I proposed that it was all about God's creativity, but I wonder if He didn't mean for us to learn from the birds, beyond Matthew 6.
God desires worship from every tongue and tribe and nation, that's the Great Commission and numerous other texts, right?  What does that really look like in heaven or when the new heavens and new earth arrive?  Are we all singing English from the hymnal in our pew?  Ok, there is the house sparrow lending its song, but what about those other 10,000 birds?
If we compare people groups (tongues, tribes, nations) to the bird species...Wow, can you imagine all 10,000 birds singing at the same time?  Overall, I'll bet it is a pretty wonderful sound.  Sure there are a couple of birds whose songs I don't like as much, but I am humble enough to know that when our church sings, the overall sound is pleasant even if I am off key or on the wrong stanza!
The Joshua Project seeks to document and quantify people groups and our progress toward fulfilling the Great Commission.  They list nearly 10,000 (9,978 in 2008) people groups in the world (these are ethno-linguistic and ethnocultural groups regardless of political boundaries).  Striking similarity to the birds, eh?  Of these people groups it is recorded that around 40% have are among the least evangelized and unreached peoples.  That makes some 2.7 billion individuals!
God desires to have every people worshipping Him and singing, and uses so many ways to reach these people.  We put out bird feeders to attract birds to hear their songs, God sacrificed His Son to enable us to draw near.  How do birds know there is a full birdfeeder?  Probably their birdy friends tell them, even across species!  How will these other 4,253 people groups know?  We must go and make disciples!
Looking forward to praising God with you now and always!
Kim

21 May 2012

Bird feeders

Ah, the perfect cartoon sunrise with chirping birds and happy music in the background.  Songbirds in the spring are such a wonder to behold.  Robins, doves, chickadees, bluebirds all sing along happily and then a jay or mockingbird swoops through with his cacophanous call.  Stillness prevails for a few moments, then the sweet melody resumes. 
Do you have a birdfeeder still?
In our small group study, Emily Smith remarked that she continues to fill the bird feeder even now in this season of plenty just so she can see the birds and hear them outside her window.  As she spoke of this small extravagance, I was reminded of how much more our Heavenly Father lavishes on us.  I don't mean a prosperity gospel, but gosh we sure are a blessed people!  Why does He do it, even when we don't deserve all these blessings?  He desires to hear us sing!  Just like Emily with the birds, He desires us to draw near to Him and sing for joy (Psalm 100).
Look outside, all you people in the northern hemisphere.  See all that glorious spring variety?  God is a a god of creativity and beauty, creating an intricate world just to enjoy.  While these things are functional, I surely wouldn't call this extravagance a strictly utilitarian system.  Evolutionists may say there is redudency in pants and animals to ensure survival and a continual food source, but I counter that if it is strictly utilitarian, why is there so much variety? Why would there be so much extra, unexpressed DNA that evolved and remained?  My answer? God is a great artist.  He put in lots of extra details so that over time, the fulness of His creation would be expressed.  It is rather like a sculpture that developed a beautiful patina as it ages--it isn't exactly how the artist made it at first, but he knew that it would change and mature into an enduring work of art.  I mean, can you imagine a gleaming and shiny Thinker? Rodin understood how the bronze would change after casting and make the exquisite form into a subtler, individual piece.  The 20+ castings of this all look a little different depending on their atmosphere.  Wow, just think, a sculpture out of a single alloy can change and look vastly different from the same mold and same materials in just over 100 years. What then can we expect from God's creation with so many complex materials--look around!  We can see the vast imagination of God and know that we are made in His image.  We look at the art of the Masters or on our own refrigerators and see remarkable creative expression and know it is only a foretaste of what God has in store!
Why are there 20 different species of birds at Emily's feeder? It is a beautiful sound to hear so many different songs intertwined.  More in a few days about this!

18 March 2012

Priesting the Gospel

Well, I promised some insight from Perspectives, but it is hard to distill down such an amazing first 2 weeks to a blog short enough to read!  What strikes me this morning is one short line to "priest the gospel" not just "preach the gospel."
What's the difference?  You've known some great preachers, right? Highly polished sermons, great theatrics and stories, perfect TV face?  Were you impressed? Did you really feel Christ's love from them? 
Now remember a really great priest or pastor.  I really like the term pastor since I understand about sheep and shepherding.  It takes really getting in the muck with your flock to be a good shepherd.  Good pastors are the ones who cry with you when you talk about losses, work shoulder to shoulder with you on things and listen when you need to vent.  Through this building of true relationship, not merely preaching at us does one really understand the difference. 
God calls all of us to "priest" the gospel.  From our abundance of joy in God's glory we should overflow with the desire to share this with others.  This means our sharing or evangelism doesn't come from a sense of duty, but from a love of God.  When we share our faith and joy of salvation with someone, especially if we don't know them well, it springs out of our love for God as much or more than our love of the person.
Whew, much more to come, but there is a lot of reading and writing and thinking in Perspectives, though I highly recommend it!  It has already caused a bit of paradigm shift in our thinking about missions. www.perspectives.org.

02 March 2012

Perspective

Wow, nearly a month already!  Where does the time go?  Somehow we have gotten terribly caught up in the busyness of life and haven't communicated in a while.  After 2 Real Life Real Impact student weekends, 10 days in Nicaragua, and a CVM Board meeting in CA I feel like I am on spiritual overload!  God is so good, but it took me a while to recover.
We are now officially in our third month of deputation and I think the Lord is teaching us patience....  It seems like it will take forever to have our monthly budget coming in or pledged. 
God is blessing us through many of you and your gifts though!  We are glad you are enabling us to be the conduits through which your ministry to God's people can be carried out.  Keep praying for the people of Bolivia and us as well as about your role in this ministry.
We are beginning the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course this week--wow!  This is a bigger undertaking than I realized, but I have been blown away in the first chapter already.  Look for some insights from this course in the upcoming weeks.

06 February 2012

Our God is AMAZING!

This morning is our last full day in Nicaragua.  It is a day of rest and regrouping.  I am sitting and watching the Pacific break on the rocks, waiting for the few surfers to paddle out and tackle the waves.  It is a tough life...
We have had a great week of training though.  We, along with 10 other CVM fieldworkers or candidates have been working 8am to often 7 or 8 pm daily on a training called "Training of Trainers."  This is an exciting, practical method of adult education based on Participatory Learning.  The gist of this is involving trainees (on our staff, in communities, or anywhere) to engage in dialogue through skits, picture codes, etc to discover their own needs and have ownership of the material they learn. A simile for this is like how David and I joke that our marriage is happy because we always let the other person think it was their idea!  It isn't so devious as that, though.  It is an amazing method of teaching and learning rather than our traditional school method of banking--dumping knowledge into a brain and expecting regurgitation of answers.
Anyway, it has been an intense week of learning and application, we even had to develop our own training programs to present to our classmates.  The bonding between our coworkers was amazing.  I am constantly reminded of what an excellent example of the family of Christ that we have in Christian Veterinary Mission. 
We have now been at the beach for a day or so with the other fieldworkers from Latin America and have loved picking their brains about crosscultural living and the odd things we should plan to bring with us!  More about that in the future...

Thanks for supporting us with your prayers!  We are flying home on Tuesday and then Caleb is going to Indiana to visit family, David is back to school, and I am headed to California for the CVM board meeting.  Pray for our crazy travel and sanity!

26 January 2012

Leaving Saturday

It has been a fun, busy week for us!  Last weekend we spent an awesome time in Athens for the CVM Real Life Real Impact student meeting.  It was great to see our DVM friends and meet new vet students who love the Lord. We shared about RAIN and had a wonderful outpouring of love and prayer from the folks in our session. 
Tonight I get to share with the Bell County 4H about equine parasites, then finish packing for Nicaragua.  We leave at 3:30AM Saturday to head to Nicaragua for a week and a half of training in participatory learning for community development and fellowship with other CVM fieldworkers.  Pray for our travels and our deeper understanding of this form of ministry.

13 January 2012

White as snow

As I look at the thin layer of snow this morning, I will continue on the theme of cleansing, of sanctification.  Cue the "Washed in the Blood" chorus (are your garments spotless, are they white as snow), so it can be stuck in your head too!
The sacrifice of Jesus justifies us, that is, makes us accepatble to the Lord (remember your elementary Christian education-"just as if I'd").  Our sanctification however is another matter altogether.  That is our process of working toward holiness.  This is where the snow comes in.  Today we have a very thin layer, but all the grass is poking through, there are windswept patches on the driveway that are bare; all in all it is pretty ugly.  But if it continues to snow it will blanket everything to there are no rough edges, no poky things and it will be beautiful.  In the same manner, as we learn to let go of the things of this world and strive toward God's will, we become clothed in righteousness and just as smooth and pure as the snow-covered landscape looks.  Here is where my analogy may break down (or not).  God changes us and truly makes us holy and righteous, whereas the snow just covers us up, when it melts, the unmown grass and weedy pastures are staring. Maybe it is true of us too though.  Without God, we are still human, so if we drift away our weeds become exposed too.
Enjoy the snow and think of how we are working toward holiness, not covering up our inadequacies ourselves, but allowing God to blanket us in His purity.

04 January 2012

My cup overflows Psalm 23:5 (or runneth over, if you like KJV)
This is what I shrieked this morning as I tried to do laundry in the dark.  Pouring clear laundry detergent is not that successful in a predawn haze.  Why didn't I turn on the light?  Well, honestly I got lazy--I had flipped the breaker to rewire the ceiling fan and never gotten around to it and didn't want to run down to the basement to turn the breaker back on.
Why am I bothering to tell you this?  I was struck by the symbolism of this tiny accident.  The Lord's cup overflows with salvation, with cleansing, with goodness. My clothes may be extra sudsy today and maybe cleaner, but the Lord's cup of blessing through the blood of Jesus makes us pure and spotless, able to enter into the Lord's presence.  It is an amazing thing to be clean enough for God!  Read some Levitical laws about cleanliness (Chapter 13 is a good one).  Wow!  Maybe my grandma was right that "cleanliness is next to Godliness," but praise God for Jesus! If we had to present ourselves to the priest for every scab we had, or every spot of mold on a piece of leather to determine if we were able to worship. 
So, wash your clothes and wear them to worship our great God.  Take refuge in His glorious sanctification and freedom.