“Because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.”
John 15:5
The everyday life of a missionary doesn’t feel heroic at all (most of the time you feel too small and limited); daily life is just daily life. During the three years I lived along the coast of Manta as a missionary with my family, we learned some things were more easily to judge from the outside than from the inside. The big picture, most of the time, gets lost in the everyday life and it doesn’t reappear unless you have a quite time to sit still with yourself in order to remember the beginning of it all and the development of miracles that brought those now familiar faces to our everlasting story. It wasn’t until I moved back to Cuenca, our hometown, for college two years ago, that I could realize what my family’s been doing in the city of fishermen.
In my college vacations last August many things popped out to my eyes while I stayed there, and here they are. Hope you don’t mind this update about the Molina’s from a Molina itself .
Mom keeps being crafty, creative and tireless. She’s always searching for something pretty to do, and when she finds it, a lot of fun comes with it. Tiny objects in total silence give her away as the embroidered hearts hanging in the entrance, the flowerpots strategically placed around the living room, the decoration redistributed, and the paper flowers (below), which gladded the last women prayer meeting, in which 30 of them heard and talked about prayer.
Between leading worship on Sundays and weekly rehearsals, mom takes some classes at the local music school. The worship team: Hugo and Mónica in the chorus; Jessica with the tambourine; Josué and Omar, fifteen year old boys, in the guitars; and mom in the piano, had been such a challenge to rise since none of them know anything about music itself. Mom’s commitment has taken her to decide to follow music as a professional career; her classes star this September. (She has waited anxiously, like a little kid, for this week :)
As you can see, mom is not the only musician in the house. Clarita (10 years old) started violin classes two years ago and since then its sweet notes blend with mom’s piano. I was happy to congratulate her for her first concert last august and enjoyed of a private show. The “Claritas” form a nice duet, as someone said; I enjoyed so much watching them tuning their instruments together.
During my stay, I missed Majo since she left to college before I woke up and hurried to tango lessons in the afternoons, which closing performance I enjoyed. We made the best we could of our meals together and the night conversations. Her passion and commitment for all she does inspire me. Doesn’t matter how much time we spend together it’s never enough.
You may wonder: “where’s the man of all these women (including me)?” Well, he’s pulling all these things together: preparing preaches weekly, meeting people, planning, praying daily, traveling to Chone once a month so as to raise a church there; and now, trying to balance men’s number in their meetings with the women’s (hehe). Many of them are enthusiastic in praying together early in the morning once a week. Sometimes I don’t know how dad does it; but I know God’s the one in control. To see him preaching with such an enthusiasm and encouragement fills me with joy. I can’t believe this dream grew in his heart in such a hard time and place of his past. I’m so glad it did.
Along with prayer, men been training soccer and now they’re ready to win the Championship between Christian churches of the city. They started pretty well, last Sunday, being the best uniformed team and having the most beautiful “Miss Sports”.
One of the ministries growing fast is the kids’. The older ones are numerous as always and the babies are increasing every time. We owe this increasing to all the couples that decided (or were surprised) to have another baby. The couple of the month is Jonathan and Jasmín, who join my dad’s team with her third girl. We are so happy for them.
I write from Cuenca so proud to belong to this family and, even more, to the big family of the King.
This post was kept in my drafts with the excuse that my English should be checked (and still does, so if you see a typo or bad grammar please let me know and help me improve :D I’ll appreciate it very much!). And besides, I didn’t like the end, but tonight I think I found it.
I’m just gonna ask you to pray for us, tonight, this week, or even this whole month. Who knows? Maybe you’ll keep us in your prayers for years; and we’ll be as much thanked for it with all whole hearts because we have known the power of prayer and have seen miracles in our everyday lives that we couldn’t live without it. We still have fights and fears; so simple as a new song for sunday service or huge as a new instrument for the worship team (not the money for it, even though it was a big concern until God provided free drums ;) here we’re talking of getting it “played” you know? That may be an even harder challenge). We still need vision and faith; and God still uses our personal fights and fears in order to give victory to lives beyond our own. We still suffer in silence and pray in desperation for “being the only ones in charge” (big lie) and live in the edge of our strengths and with pain just to find God in the other side supporting us and giving us the victory. Yes, maybe this sounds a little dramatical or too emotional but this is how it feels tonight and this is what we really are convinced of: that it’s not us (because we feel all this drama) but it’s truly God doing it all through us. Our people pray and bend to him; our women can’t hold their tears; our men raise, and our younger ones are brave and shameless for His glory; and we marvel and cry of happiness in front of such a good God that had given us stories to tell which we cannot explain.
It’s such an encouragement to know we count with you. We thank for your lives, which enabled us to get here. Keep praising God in all you do, one day at a time. Blessings.
“So we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another.” Rom. 12:4
