Brendan: I’m writing this on the plane ride back home from Uruguay, our first stretch from Montevideo to Panama. Tuesday’s pastors’ lunch has been heavy on my mind in more ways than I can express.
Casey here. Before he continues, some background on this trip and who we are. I’m Casey McCarty, Director of Communications for Missionary Ventures, and wife of this blog post’s author, Brendan.
He wrote this post on the way home from his first international mission trip, and technically only my second. Uruguay, Missionary Ventures, and this trip are a part of our calling from the Lord. We’re still discerning where He’s calling Brendan professionally.
The rest that follows reveals his heart for the Lord, the impact of this trip not only on our lives, but the lives of the believers we met in Uruguay. And I think it’s a pretty good summary of the lifechanging impact of a relationally focused and encouragement-based mission trip can make.
OK, now back to Brendan’s words.
Brendan again. The first thing on my mind is the amazing pastors and their wives who showed up. How incredible it was that they all came and met so many others for the first time. It showed how much they can connect outside their little bubble of influence.
OK sorry, Casey here again. Maybe a little back story on this lunch and the general feel of this trip would help set the stage better. If you didn’t know, Uruguay is the most secular nation in all of South America, and the top 10 worldwide. So the Church is pretty small there. In a place like Rocha, Uruguay, where the suicide rates are the highest in a nation of 3 million people, sharing the hope of the Gospel is hard work to a people who have no frame of reference for Jesus Christ.
MV missionary Gustavo Huamani and his family are doing that work. And in the process, they’re building a support system of other pastors, believers, and churches carrying out the same mission. The goal of this mission trip was simple. To encourage them in the work of sharing the Gospel, reminding them that there are fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in the U.S. (and beyond) praying for them, seeing the work of growing a church out of nothing, and connecting them with other churches in their region.
That’s where this pastor’s lunch came in. Gustavo invited all of the local pastors in his region of Rocha to a celebration lunch. While there isn’t an official count on pastors in his area, my best guess is there are maybe a dozen Christian churches, several averaging 20 members. This lunch brought six of those pastors and their wives together, several meeting for the first time, to connect with each other and some foreigners who just wanted to pray over them and serve them for their faith in a fallen world.
Second, the pastors themselves. I sat there during our lunch together, followed by worship despite the language barrier, feeling God’s overwhelming presence in the room. It reminds me of the passage in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or more are gathered in my name I will be there also.” Not only was He there, but He was moving in everyone, especially the pastors.
Third, their wives—the ones that support them no matter what they are doing, when they need a helping hand or shoulder to cry on to talk with. These amazing women keep these men going whether it’s recognized in their culture or not.
Fourth, I feel God working in every single one of their lives so much so that they have no idea what this little time together has done for God’s kingdom beyond Rocha, and for the work they are doing in Rocha, in La Paloma, in Chuy, and beyond. Do I know what God is going to do in each pastor’s life and their church? No, but what I do know is God is building something, and He will supply everything needed.
Five, we came here to bless these pastors, their wives, their families, and their churches with nothing expected in return. But I did receive something—one of the most encouraging moments in my life. I never expected what was given to me through them. So much more happened than my human mind could comprehend.
Three pastors came and talked to me at different times in the day. Of course, I could not understand a thing without John’s translation because of the language barrier. My Spanish doesn’t get me much further than finding el baño. And their English was a simple Amen.
One pastor encouraged me to be open to what God has ahead. He said God has already brought me this far, from bringing me out of surgery for my brain tumor as a child to bringing me to that place in Rocha, at that moment. I never even thought I would be where I am today.
The second pastor just showed John a Bible verse and said nothing to him or me other than he wanted me to have the scripture. The passage was Isaiah 41:9-11, which reads:
“I took you from the ends of the earth,
from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
“All who rage against you
will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
will be as nothing and perish.”
He didn’t know, no one does—not even my wife until she read this blog post—that this verse hits hard for me as I’m the only one who knows the impact of this verse on my life.
It was a quiet hold out that has kept me together for so many years, a quiet place I’ve gone back to and still forgotten recently until this moment in Uruguay, because this verse became important to me during my brain tumor diagnosis and treatment. After I was diagnosed with the benign but deadly tumor at age 11, I started receiving hundreds of encouraging letters and emails because my grandmother had spread the word of what I was going through. Her word spread fast and got so much attention I was receiving letters from people I’ve never known or may ever know. Soon they came in multiple languages and from all over the world.
It blows my mind the number of people who were praying for me and encouraging me. While most letters did not stand out to me, one did because it was so simple—maybe even mysterious. It had no name or author. It was just a verse from the Bible and nothing else. It was as if God wrote it himself, to me.
It was Isaiah 41:9-11.
The meaning never made any sense to me as a child, but now as I look back on my life so far, I realize God has brought me from the darkest parts of the earth, from its furthest reaches—as close to death on the surgery table as a child—then anyone may ever experience in their lives.
It’s the reason I don’t take a breath for granted.
But I fear I may have some in the past few years. I lost sight of what God did back then, and now the verse calls me back again from that edge of existence. I am God’s servant. He has chosen me for something big in this life, even if to me, it could be the smallest thing.
Maybe it is simply my life, the steps that I take, that create an impact for what God is calling me to do. To use my story to share His. Use the space—the home, the marriage, the community—He has given me to provide a resting place to those who are missionaries, who are called to spread His Word.
I see how He has strengthened me throughout my life. And He has made me stronger than ever because he has given me Casey. She backs me, she cares for me, and we are walking together in God in our marriage—and nothing can break that apart. We are at war daily in this world and the evil one tries to tear us apart because the enemy knows that whatever we are going to do for God will hurt him in this world.
What is God calling me to? What is God calling us to do? Does He have a new place for us to go? Is He holding us here to build His vision where we are now? So many questions I don’t have answers to. But I know that God does and so do those verses in Isaiah.
And then when the third pastor prayed over me and Casey, OMG as I mention below, I still feel his hand on my chest. I have so few words. I want to go back to that moment to hear his words again. Yes, John translated and Casey recorded it, but to go back in time to that moment, I would leap at the chance.
Yes, I recorded it. Then had it translated and shared it with Brendan so he could finish this post. And I am so glad I did. Jorge’s words spoke deeply to us both. It is a moment that will always be imprinted on my heart.
God spoke through Pastor Jorge into us. I hold it in my thoughts as I wonder what God has in store for us. I know that Jorge knows more of what God is doing in our lives than we do. Despite the language barrier, I felt I could see him and he could see me, both of us, all of us together in the light of God.
As I reflect over this trip on our flight home, looking back at some of the big moments and even the little ones, my heart yearns for a better time. My heart longs for the time when we are connected on this earth as God meant it to be. My heart is on fire for what God is doing in Uruguay—and it’s just a tiny, tiny part of God’s bigger picture for His kingdom.
We only get a glimpse of His vision, but that is what puts a fire in our hearts to follow Him, to bless whoever we can, and encourage one another.
Because God speaks.