Pint Size Dreams Or Ocean Size Dreams

Over the course of this year, God has definitely been working on my understanding of faith.  Back in the spring, I posted about taking a leap of faith.  That message is still working on me.  This weekend, we had the honor and pleasure of hosting Dave Sgro and his son, Luke, at our house on Saturday night and to our church on Sunday morning.  Dave and his family are missionaries in the town of Xenacoj in Guatemala.  Our team worked with his organization (Guatemala Outreach (Go!) Ministries) while we were in Guatemala this summer.

Dave and Luke arrived at our house late around 10PM on Saturday night.  I’m sure he was tired from driving and we were tired from a busy day, but we stayed up for a couple of hours to hear more about Dave’s ministry.  It’s exciting to hear how God is providing ideas and resources for things that are having a huge impact on the town of Xenacoj.  Dave also shared his families’ story about their decision to sell everything they owned in North Carolina including their home and business and to move their entire family to Guatemala two years ago.

As we talked, Dave talked about our expectations for God.  He says that we often limit God through our expectations and dreams.  We expect God to fill our pint size hopes and dreams when God is actually capable of filling ocean size hopes and dreams.  It was a reminder that we need to dream big.  I wrote about this earlier when I talked about building a house in Guatemala.  This gave me a taste of this.  I could have just sought out enough money to go on the trip, but I decided to see if we could build a house through The Stretched Community.  I wonder even in that thought if I my expectations were too limited.

What would happen if we really dreamed bigger – if we realized that God is able to do far more than we could ever imagine?

Here are some of the ideas that come to mind for me:

• A family missions trip this summer to Xenacoj with other families.  No, a lifetime of Kingdom Journeys that change families both here in America and around the world.
• Another house built by and through the Stretched Community.  No, a real Stretched Community built by and through The Stretched Blog and The Stretched Community.
• A book.  No, ten books!

It’s my prayer that you and I would wake up to the vast love and power of a God who is able to do far more that we could imagine.  Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 makes more sense to me now than ever:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

(Ephesians 3:14-21)

Seriously, how are you putting limits on your dreams?  How can you enlarge your dreams?  What is one area where you need to grasp how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is for you?  What’s your dream – is it pint-sized or ocean-sized?

Departing Thoughts and Prayers – Leaving for Guatemala Tomorrow

Last night, we had our last team meeting before we depart for Guatemala early (REALLY EARLY) Thursday morning.  (That’s tomorrow!!!)

Our leader and high school youth pastor, Adam, opened up the meeting by asking everyone what they were thinking and feeling as the trip is just about here.

It was interesting to hear responses from the kids and even some of the leaders as the trip is upon us.  Here are some of the things I heard:

• “I’m nervous about not being able to communicate in Spanish with the kids.”
• “I’m nervous about getting sick again.”
• “I still need to pack.”
• “I’m nervous about leaving my family.”
• “I’m so excited!”

It’s kind of interesting to hear some of these thoughts.  If I’m honest, I share many of these thoughts and anxieties.  I haven’t had Spanish in many, many years.  I’m not sure how I’ll be able to communicate with people who don’t speak English at all.  I certainly don’t want to get sick.  I’ll have medications necessary to combat stomach bugs and headaches, but I certainly don’t want to spend my time away sick in bed.  I still need to pack.  I guess that will happen after work tonight.  I’m a little anxious about leaving my wife and son.  I trust that everything will be okay while I’m gone.  But I’ll miss the ability to communicate and to be there to jump in on anything that would arise – even the small things.  I’m super excited as well.  I struggled with sleep last night which I’m sure is normal.  I’m a little nervous about hanging out with teenagers all week.  I don’t know many of these students now, but I’m sure that will change as the week goes on.

As Adam asked the question at our meeting last night.  He commented that it will be interesting to see how these thoughts look after we’ve been to Guatemala.

As I look at many of the thoughts including my own they have such a “ME” focus.  “I’m this…” and “I’m that….”  It’s my prayer that our team is WRECKED by this experience.  I pray that our focus would shift to others first.  I pray that we’d make a difference during our trip to Guatemala.  And I pray that we’d be open to ways that God will transform each of us through this trip which is sure to be adventure.

While I’m away, I have a number of guest bloggers lined up and some other scheduled posts to keep you going.  Please keep visiting here, and be sure to chime in on the conversations sparked by the guest bloggers.  You can also follow the blog of our team at riotmissions.com.  Someone from our team will be posting here daily – at least that’s the plan.

What are you anxious about today?  What are you excited about today?

WOW! Guatemala Goal Met!

For those of you who have been following along, The Stretched Community has been working together to fund the costs to build a house in Guatemala.  If you read my post this morning, you may have noticed that we still needed $2,550 to meet this target.

Well…

You stepped up!  The goal was met as of 1:36PM today!

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

I am amazed and blown away by the power of taking a leap of faith and by the power of community.

Thanks to your generous support, The Stretched Community will be responsible for building a house in Guatemala.

The goal has been met, but there’s still an opportunity to be involved.  You can give towards another home by hitting the fundraising page, and you can definitely pray for our trip.  My post from earlier today provides some specific prayer requests.

God is great!

When was the last time you were blown away?

Guatemala Update – Stretching to Build Something Bigger

Two weeks ago, I shared a “big ask” on The Stretched Blog.  I challenged readers to pray for my upcoming trip to Guatemala and to consider the possibility of supporting the trip financially.  I also threw out a challenge goal of $5,000 to do something bigger through the Stretched Community.  At the time, I didn’t know the details of this “something bigger” project.  Within 6 hours of posting this “big ask“, someone stepped up to fund the trip and to meet the challenge goal.  I was blown away!

I received some comments that others might want to get involved with the Stretch project.  I’m happy to share details of this project and to share how you can contribute to doing something bigger together.  Through your generous donations, we will be building a house in Guatemala.  That’s right, if we can raise $3,000 more (for a total of $8,000), we can pay for a house.  I’m super excited about this possibility.  The house will be by our team through an organization called Casas Por Cristo.  Here’s a video to help you see what The Stretched Community will help to build.

To donate, click here to go to the fundraising page or go to the jonstolpe.com main page and click on the donate button on the right hand side.  Check back here regularly to see the progress towards this goal.  (If we happen to raise more than $8,000, we will build another house.)  Thanks!

Have you ever dreamed of doing something bigger?  What’s holding you back from pursuing this dream?