DRIVING AND MEXICO . . . YIKES!!!

As I mentioned in my last entry, my map of Hermosillo has been very close to my heart. When I first arrived in Hermosillo a few days ago, I felt a renewed passion for the truths in the Bible and simply to have more zeal to treat it as God’s very Word . . . which it is. This mainly came about as I was trying to drive Hannah and Amy to the missionaries house that they are staying with and I didn’t have a clue how to get there (lets just say that they don’t exactly have mapquest, and at this point in time I didn’t have my Mexican cell phone working yet. So, that map was my livelihood and Amy Paasch did an excellent job being my navigator. I guess we look kind of dumb though with a huge map of the city on our laps as we are driving down the street, but who cares. Without the map, I would be pretty lost.

Anyway, the drivers down here are much different than in the states, and yesterday I had the pleasure of learning this lesson the hard way. First to put the story in perspective, here are a few of my 20 specific prayer requests that I gave out before the trip:

14. That God would bless my locomotion throughout the trip (safety and no accidents).
16. That I would consider it pure joy through any trials I encounter.
19. That my joy would not be circumstantial.

Well, in Gods providence, he allowed two of these three prayers to be answered (#16 and #19) at the expense of #14.

As I was driving Hannah and Amy by a house that they used to live at while they were serving as missionaries here in Hermosillo for 3 years, I was driving about 10 mph in the street and was going to do a U-turn. I saw the big Ford pickup behind me, but he must have thought I was parking (even though I was very close to the middle of the street starting to turn around. Well, here in Mexico, rather than stopping, many people try to squeeze right by obstacles like immoveable cars. However, this guy did not have enough room to squeeze by to avoid hitting the parked car on the other side of the residential street, and thus he barely nudged my front left bumper. Hannah, Amy, and I thought that it was his fault though he tried to claim the opposite. However, the damage seemed to be so minimal that I didn’t want to get the police involved.

Though I could have been very frustrated about the small inconvenience, I was just blown away at the many blessings that God gave me this day. No one got hurt at all, I learned a great lesson about driving in Mexico, I have a great story to tell, I was able to say “God bless you” in Spanish to the guy and be a witness for Christ, I was able to be reminded that everything I own is Gods and this world is so temporary compared to my eternal home in Heaven, and it lead me to pray right away to God. I can’t think of a way God could have blessed me more. Though the damage is very small, I do need to have someone just pull out my bumper above my front left tire since right now my drivers side door does not open all the way. One of my Mexican friends (Victor) from the church Maranatha has already told me he would give me a ride if I needed to leave my car at a shop overnight. I have just been continually astounded at Gods faithfulness to me as I am here in Mexico. Praise His marvelous name!!!

Love you all and keep praying for me!

Brent

Philippians 4:4-9
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

1st Update From Mexico

Hola friends and family,
6-25-05

I wanted you all to know that I am doing great in Mexico!! Just yesterday I arrived in Hermosillo Mexico after an amazing time in Caborca. The people that I’m staying with for the next week are just incredible (Fabian, Secorro, Abraham 18 yrs, David 17 yrs). They are one of the most hospitable families that I know; and though they don’t speak any English, they have been communicating with extreme love. It has been so much fun to try and use the little amount of Spanish that I know. However, at times I feel like a little baby since I can’t understand hardly anything at times. Last night I had the pleasure of going to the youth group in the church called Maranatha with Hannah and Amy Paasch (they will be staying here for the next 9 days). It was so amazing to see Christians from another culture loving God, studying the Word, praising Him, and just hanging out . . . all the while doing this in a language that is completely foreign to me. Here are a few things that I would love prayer for the next couple of days:

1. I am starting to feel a little sick (I think it is just a soar throat). Please pray that I would start feeling 100% again.

2. Pray that I would be able to familiarize myself with the city very quickly. One quick note about my city map . . . because without it I am lost . . . it has become very precious to me, and it is a reminder to me that the Bible should be as precious to me since it is God’s map of how I should live my life. Wow, God is making me so dependent upon Him!

3. Pray also that I would be able to jump right into the ministry here at the church of Aqua Viva.

Love you all and God bless!!

Brent Klontz

P.S. Here are a few updates that I typed out while I was in Caborca, but was unable to send because I did not have email access.


6-20-05
Dear Precious friends and family,
Though you won’t be receiving this email till later, I am actually writing to you on 6-20-05 right as I just finished an amazing last couple of days of ministry in Caborca Mexico. As you know, I will be spending my first week with the East Valley Bible Church team of 18 students and staff and there are also 5 other college students from Hermosillo Mexico, the city where I will be spending the remainder of my ministry time. I can not even begin to explain the amazing wonders that God is doing so far in Caborca. We still have three more days of ministry in the camps sharing the gospel to indigenous tribal workers, but God has already astounded us with doing increasingly and abundantly beyond what we could ever ask or think. We have already shared the gospel to a few hundred people, attended two Mexican churches, had some amazing times in corporate and personal devotions, seen continual answers to prayer, shared in some amazing fellowship, and much more. Thank you all so much for your prayers.

Let me quickly tell you how God has been answering some of your prayers:

1. People are hearing the gospel and being saved.
2. I haven’t complained about the weather yet, for doing so would demean the very character of God, since he created the warm weather that I am in right now with no air conditioning. I simply praise Him that we have fans, water to drink, and the food is amazing.
3. I’ve been in the Word so far every day as I have been studying Galatians.
4. God is using the whole team to be servants to each other and treat others needs as more important than our own.
5. God is giving me joy through trials so far, and I am definitely falling more in love with Jesus.
6. I’ve had numerous chances to use what little Spanish I know, and I am definitely learning much.
7. We’ve been very safe and no one has gotten seriously ill.
8. Prayer has been very sweet and the Word is richly dwelling so far in my life.
9. Much more!!!

Here are some things that you can pray for:
1. I have already had a little bit of trouble with the whole cultural differences. With my very outgoing personality, please keep me in prayer that I would not step over any cultural barriers or give any signals to the people here that would be offensive or inappropriate.
2. It is very easy to be prideful and selfish on this trip, and I seem to have to constantly check my motivations . . . please pray that all that I do in Mexico would be for the glory of God alone and not myself.
3. I want to continually remember that God has appointed the very boundaries that I would live in for a certain time (Acts 17), and I want to remember that God is sovereign over all . . . He is completely sovereign over each activity that I do while I am here. Shucks, He knows the very number of hairs on my head.
4. Please pray that I would see this life as temporary that I may live it only for Him.



There really is so much that God has been doing so far and I am so excited that He is allowing me another 5 and ½ weeks to continue ministering here for Him. I love you all immensely and definitely covet your prayers. Love in Christ, Brent



Dear Precious friends and family,
6-23-05

Just this morning I had a chance to lead the devotions for our team in Caborca and I basically did an overview of the book of Colossians. I was very encouraged when Paul said in Chapter 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings . . . “I was humbled because for some reason I like to think that I’m really suffering for Christ over here in Mexico for the sake of the gospel. However the weather, dust, no A.C., and etc, has nothing even in common with the sufferings that Paul had. In II Corinthians 11 Paul talks about himself being beaten 3 times, wipped five times with 40 lashes, stoned once, 3 times being shipwrecked, and on and on. Wow, I have it pretty good, and God is just teaching me so much. Here are a few highlights in the last couple of days:

1. God chose to save at least four guys last night, and there were at least 3 other believers last night that were very encouraged. Please pray for Victor, Raul, Jose, and Matilde who made a profession of faith.)

2. Last night God worked in amazing ways through the weather here. There was a dust storm that happened right after we finished diagnosing all the people in the camps and sharing the gospel to a number of them, but we still had to show the movie, “The Passion.” While we were waiting in the R.V. we invited two men from the camp to stay out of the bad weather and in the vehicle with us. For the next half of an hour, Mike was able to share the gospel with both men and one of the guys named Victor was one of the men that was saved that night. Wow, God is good!!

3. Yesterday we played a game of limbo in our free time, and I was able to keep my title as “The Limbo King.” Yeah, not only are we having fun, but the gospel is being preached, people are being saved, we are being obedient, and God is getting all the glory.

I love you all very much and thanks again for your prayers.

Love in Christ, Brent

MEXICO FOR 6 WEEKS

Well tomorrow marks the first day of a journey that God has for me for the next 6 weeks of my life. I will be serving the Lord in Mexico from June 17th till July 31st. I wanted to thank all of my friends and family who will be supporting me through prayer while I am gone, and I want you all to know that I will miss you very much. I guess I am a little nervous about being gone for this amount of time, but I guess that this nervousness is outweighed by joyful expectation about what God will do in Mexico both with the peoples of Mexico and in my own heart. I simply desire to be a man that is available for God to do whatever he would have me do, and I really anticipate the opportunity of seeing many lives impacted with the message of the gospel.

Please feel free to contact me through email as I will be able to stop occasionally at some of the internet cafés in Hermosillo. Also, please be in prayer for me. I love you all very much and I eagerly await the opportunity of giving an account for all that God will do.

Love in Christ, Brent Klontz


P.S. Here is a list of all of my prayer requests:

Prayer Requests for Brent Klontz’s Hermosillo Missions trip from June 24th-July 31st

Though these are all personal prayer requests that I pray God would answer, I remember that it is not my will but His to be done . . . thank you for praying for me.

1. That God will help me be able to communicate in Spanish by the end of my trip of 6 weeks.
2. That I will be in the Word everyday in Mexico.
3. That God would empower me to memorize Psalm 119 this summer.
4. That God would give me the ability to learn guitar while I'm in Mexico, and that I will teach drums effectively to the 2 Christian students in Hermosillo.
5. That I would not become weary in doing good.
6. That I will praise God for the extremely hot weather.
7. That the short term teams I will be helping to facilitate will be very effective in sharing the gospel to the locals.
8. That I will be a bold light to the non-Christian Mexican family that I will be staying with for 2 weeks, and to encourage the other 2 Christian families that I’ll be staying with for the remainder of the time.
9. That my presence will be a help and blessing to Agua Viva Church.
10. That I will grow deeply more in love with Jesus.
11. That I will be able to communicate well to my senders and jr. students (email or letters).
12. That this trip will help further my impact to Student Ministries when I return as well as give me more of a passion for sharing my faith.
13. That God would help me be vigilant to set a good example and not allow cultural differences to hinder my witness.
14. That God would bless my locomotion throughout the trip (safety and no accidents).
15. That my personal belongings won’t get stolen.
16. That I would consider it pure joy through any trials I encounter.
17. That God would keep me healthy.
18. That God would bless me with quality fellowship.
19. That my joy would not be circumstantial.
20. That the Word of Christ would richly dwell in me.

SUMMER CAMP 2005

Well though I haven’t blogged in a while it still must be known that God is continually sanctifying me in amazing ways. This last week was such a blessed time as I spent June 10th-June 14th in Point Loma San Diego. Every year, the student ministry of East Valley Bible Church goes to camp in Point Loma and each time we go God just seems to getter sweeter and more precious to me.

Every year God seems to amaze me even more in the ways he chooses to answer prayer and do radical things at camp. I had twelve 7th and 8th grade boys up with me at camp and I was so awed by how God allowed me to serve these young men and learn from them as well. Let me just recall some of the highlights:

1. The first big moment of camp actually started on the bus ride to Point Loma. I ended up talking to the bus driver Adel, and as a result, God opened up a door for me to share the gospel with him for about 40 minutes. The highlight for me was when one of my Jr. High guys came up to me afterward and said how encouraged he was to see me sharing the gospel.

2. Tom Shrader did a magnificent job teaching on Jonah, and OneTurn80 did a phenomenal job at ushering us into worship through music. Also, I have to say that Justin Marshal did an amazing job at all of his dance moves. Wow, that guy can groove!!

3. Our group had some amazing small group times and at the first small group time I had the guys shut their eyes and raise their hand if they weren’t sure if they would go to heaven if they died. This was very cool because the guys seemed to be very open and honest in regards to their spiritual condition (3 guys claimed to be non-believers and a few more were struggling with assurance issues.

4. Our group ended up meeting for about an hour before each session (7 total times) plus we met after each night session as well. These were some of the best times of conversation, devotionals, and study time. During this time, I had some of the guys lead the group in like a 3-5 minute devotional, I also had time allotted for these guys and myself to have quiet time with God, and I also had the guys start memorizing Philippians 4:4-9. During the times that the boys did the devotionals I was astounded by the way that my guys divided the word of truth. Though all of their devotionals were very insightful, I was particularly amazed at the devotional of Brett Larsen. He must have spent a couple hours just working on his study. He told me that he was going to do a homiletical study on his passage from Proverbs . . . yeah, I need a dictionary too. Then Brett Bouchy did a great job on a passage about loving from Matthew 5:43-48. I was also encouraged by the devotional from Nathan Wilburn on Romans 8:28 and from Jed Maughan on Psalm 46:10-11. All the guys that did the devotionals did a great job!!

5. The games were very fun, and my team the grasshoppers actually placed 5th out of 20 teams. The free time games were also fun. Our group mostly played ultimate Frisbee since this is one of my favorite games of all time . . . one of the highlights of Frisbee was seeing Adam Garelick score a touchdown against all the other big highschool guys that we were playing with. It was a blast!!

6. Having one on one times with the guys was also very insightful and blessed. I found out much about the guys. Firstly, 4 out of my 12 guys are from broken homes, 3 of my guys don’t claim to be saved, and all of the guys have some really cool personalities. It is so cool to see how their personalities come out and I love them all very much! Though out of the three there were no conversions as of yet, I am so excited that they know where they are at with God, and I felt so overjoyed to continually share the gospel with them. God just kept bringing different stories and passages of Scripture to my mind so that I could share the gospel in a clear manner for them . . . praise His marvelous name!!!

7. Probably one of the proudest moments of camp was when I left the small group with a topic of discussion (worship songs they were encouraged by) to discuss in small group while I looked for a guy that was still making his way back from the night meeting. I left the guys for about 5 minutes, and when Jed and I came back, the conversation was still going very strong. Way to go guys!!

8. At the last night everyone had a chance to hear testimonies from a few of the 800 or so people who had gone to camp, and this was also a very exciting time. To see both senior high guys and little jr. high girls cry as they shared what God was doing in their hearts was just a huge testimony of the way God works in the hearts of all people.

9. More than anything else, I feel that God was refreshing, restoring, reviving, and rejuvenating my own heart. I was so happy that I had this amazing communion with God and I now feel fat with grace and truth. God was so faithful to fill my cup, and I now can’t wait to go share his name in Mexico for the next six weeks.

Truly this was an amazing time and I was so encouraged to see what all God did.

Praise His name, Brent


To all my guys and their parents, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your lives!!! I am so blessed to know you all and I will miss you exceedingly while I am in Mexico.