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

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.