God's Eddies in the World

We've all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but words give us pictures, too.  To illustrate, we decided to create a literal photo album filled with pictures of the buildings of our Chandler, AZ church along with photos of its ministries in action and to take this album with us to Riobamba, Ecuador.  At every opportunity, we want to share with fellow church members and new friends there exactly what our church facilities and ministries in action look like here. Let us explain the  discovery that compelled us to create the photo album.  When we were assigned to Riobamba, Ecuador, we started doing research to find out more about the city.  As it turned out, it's the fifth largest city in Ecuador with a population around 180,000 people. There are many active churches in the Chimborazo Province in this Central Sierra region. Specific to our assignment, we found out that the school where we will work educates about 400 students.  We did not know anything about God's work in Riobamba.  We had never heard of Riobamba, and we did not know about the mighty influence of God's transforming influence in the lives of these students. Beth Moore writes,
"Jesus is still flagrantly changing lives," and "Real people are doing the real thing all over the real world." (Moore, B. (2011). James Mercy Triumphs. Nashville.)  Jesus has His eddies whirlpooling and whirlwinding all over the world, saturating His creation with Himself.  We have a tendency to think in terms of our city, our little neighborhood, and our church in America.  But, when we read the research, the words gave us the picture.  Four hundred students!  God is working in obscure places using obscure people to make an eternal difference for His Kingdom.  But, what about the four hundred children?  Do they see a larger Jesus-work in the world?  Or, like us, do they think of only their city, their neighborhood, their church?  We believe that photos of our church and its ministries will be the pictures with a thousand words. We believe that they, too, will understand that God is working in obscure places using obscure people to make an eternal difference for His Kingdom.  We will never know to the fullest extent the pervasive and monumental number of God's eddies at work in the world.
 But, occasionally, we see a picture...
If you have time, we invite you to discover your picture and journey with us.
        Keep Looking Up!    Jim and Linda