God’s Tool Box – One Tool To Another

by | Oct 15, 2024 | Blog Page | 0 comments

We don’t think of ourselves as part of God’s tool box. We should! Isn’t He the Potter while we are the clay? Can He not form us as He chooses? See Jeremiah 18. OK, tool box is not a Biblical term but the idea is definitely present. We are vessels for God’s use (see II Timothy 2:20-21). And it is my joy to know and equip many of God’s tools/vessels. The funny thing is, while God is using me and our EquipUs Mission Teams to shape men like Pastor Camilio, He simultaneously uses them to shape us! With that in mind, I want you to hear from Pastor Camilio. And I’ll tell you why…

Church construction in Bella Vista - God's Tool Box

Columns poured – ready to roof

God’s Tool Box – Sharpening

One of the joys in our ministry is getting to know those we are called to equip. The mission of EquipUs is Equipping For Life. That flows from II Timothy 2:2 and Ephesians 4:12. Our task is to teach, train and equip pastors who will in turn equip those in their care for the work of the ministry. That’s Biblically correct. And it sounds so good when we are here and thinking about meeting our mission over there. But then it gets challenging…

It’s impossible for me to count the times I have been challenged by the devotion and commitment of God’s servants whose work is much more difficult than my own. Let me give me you some bullet point examples:

  • Having only a bicycle to pastor multiple churches (MILES apart!)
  • Unpaid absence from work to attend EquipUs classes
  • Can’t read – but working on complete Scripture memorization

Trust me, I could go on. The obedience displayed in the face of such challenges is humbling. It generates a recurring question in my thoughts:

Bella Vista church - God's tool box

Marvin on the inside

God, you called me to teach them?  

That’s iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17); the two-way street of ministry. And Pastor Camilio is part of that cycle. He is our host pastor in Bella Vista, Belize. Like all our Belizean pastors, Camilio is bi-vocational. He works on a banana farm. Yet, he always takes off work to be with our teams 24/7 while we are in Belize. He and his wife also serve as hosts to all the pastors who attend class. That’s because the pastors come to the teaching site (Bella Vista) and stay until class concludes on Wednesday. EquipUs pays for the food but Camilio and the church take care of the meal prep, etc.

God’s Tool Box – Working Together

Sometimes I grab two tools for one job. I have pliers to hold a bolt and a ratchet to turn the nut. And part of the reason I want you to hear from Pastor Camilio is the idea of tools working together. And I’ll prep you for what follows.

The video is about 5 minutes long. It was shot during last week’s mission. Zach was on his first EquipUs mission team (hopefully not his last!) and he did a great job editing the video – taking out the backgrouind noises and adding the subtitles. So, many thanks to him that you are able to have such a good opportunity to hear from Camilio. That said, please watch the video and then come back here and see the last part of this post. It will all make sense after you see the video.

We left southern Belize on Friday and stopped on last time in Bella Vista on our way up to Belize City. When we saw Pastor Camilio we learned that the heavy work on Thursday had produced a hernia. He was uncomfortable and had an appointment to see his doctor. The appointment confirmed our suspicions. As I write, Camilio is waiting to hear from the doctor about two things: 1) scheduling the corrective surgery; 2) cost of the surgery.

Donate button - God's tool box

Another tool in God’s tool box!

The larger issue is going to be several weeks of recovery. And you might wonder how I could anticipate that need. Think about this way… For those with a desk job, recovery time might be fairly quick. It could be that the heaviest thing we routinely lift is our laptop computer! But, if the job is on a banana farm and involves lots of heavy lifting then the required time off for healing will be a good bit longer. And that’s where the tools in God’s tool box need to work together.

Helping Us Help

There are two things to do that will prove very helpful. As you heard in the video: pray. That is always part of any llst of ways to help with any issue. The second thing is the donate button. We will be trying to help with two items. First, there is the cost of the surgery. We don’t know that yet, but that information will be made avaialble when we know. Second, there is the problem of unpaid leave from work.

That said, I’m glad to report that contributions have already been committed to help cover living expenses for Camilio’s family. To give you a little bit of  perspective, a $600.00 (U.S.) monthly salary is fairly common. That will let you ‘do the math’ for various monthly support scenarios. Of course, the cost of the surgery is the number we still don’t know.

Let’s end where the help list began: please pray for Camilio, his family and EquipUs.Thank you so much! Goodness of God Cover image

Soli Deo Gloria!

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