When the vision for the Iris Latin America trip was birthed in 2010,
Jesse and Tanya (our team leaders) felt led to not only share the gospel in
every country in Latin America, but specifically to travel all the way to the very
bottom of South America. They yearned to
ignite revival fire from the tip of the continent and let it fan to flame up
the rest of the Latin world.
While
in Santiago, Chile, we decided to leave our vehicles at a YWAM base and take a
series of buses and ferries to the tip of South America rather than driving. This would save us time, money, and the
hassle of driving through winter weather with our clumsy fleet of vehicles.
Our
ultimate goal was to reach Argentina’s Ushuaia, the southernmost city on the
planet, literally deemed “the End of the World”. Getting to Ushuaia required weaving in and
out of Chile and Argentina various times, through a beautiful but circuitous
route.
After
days of travel, while stopped at a random bus station in Argentina, we were
forced with two choices. We could spend
the night in this town and bus directly to Ushuaia in the morning. Or, we could
board another bus within the hour and take a less direct route to Ushuaia,
stopping in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas along the way.
In
my mind, it clearly made sense to wait a day and take the direct bus route to
Ushuaia. However, Tanya reminded us that
we needed God to order our steps and asked us all to pray for a moment. Immediately, the Lord showed me that we were
going to Punta Arenas. Though this made
no sense to me, I knew the illogical plan was from God when all my teammates
said the same thing. An hour later, we
were on a bus back to Chile.
Upon
arrival to Punta Arenas, a few of my teammates went to find a hostel for our
group, and we ended up across the street from a small church. I hadn’t even noticed the humble graffitied
building when we arrived, but the following morning, worship music flooded the
air. Taylor noticed some familiar songs
and was overcome with a desire to worship.
He walked over to the church, hoping to sneak in for a few moments,
worship and then head back to the hostel.
However,
his plan to remain under the radar was quickly interrupted as he was approached
by several people from the church who wanted to know more about him. A teenager who spoke English asked Taylor
some questions and relayed to the pastor that Taylor was a missionary passing
through. The church had a desire to send
out missionaries and asked Taylor if they could pray for him, excited to be
receiving a missionary in their church. Taylor
went up to the front to receive prayer; and afterwards, he spoke a few
prophetic words over the church. As he
spoke, several people began to weep, amazed that this young guy from the states
was speaking the very words on their hearts.
It was clear that the Lord was moving.
When
the pastor found out there were twenty more of us across the street, he was
very excited. He invited us all to worship
at the church later that evening. We
were greeted by several youths who warmly hugged and kissed us, as well as
offered us warm drinks and sweet cakes.
I liked this place already. As we
spoke to the youth, we realized that we had the same heartbeat for ministry. The parallels between our vision and theirs
were so strong that I was overwhelmed by God’s divine hand in this connection. Turns out, the church began to receive
prophetic words in 2010 about lighting revival fire, starting at their church,
and blazing throughout the rest of the continent. Jesse and Tanya had birthed almost an
identical vision in 2010 while living on the other side of the world in
Mozambique, Africa. As we compared
timing and vision, we realized it was no accident we’d been re-routed to Punta
Arenas.
Though we´d planned to
just pass through and quickly find a bus to Ushuaia, the church asked us to
stay for a week, offering to host us in family homes. We gladly accepted, and my friend Melissa and
I were put in a house with three little girls.
The girls were extremely excited to have two new roommates, playmates, entertainers,
and live-in jungle gyms.
Throughout the week, we
partnered in ministry with the church in various ways. One afternoon, our team gathered with the
youth to worship and pray together. Afterwards, we decided to hit the streets. Before approaching anyone, we asked the Lord
for whom He wanted us to pray. My group
received some weird pictures that seemingly didn’t go together--penguins, a
scarf vendor, a group of girlfriends, a bicycle, and the name Camilla. As we walked to the main plaza in Punta
Arenas, we noticed a booth where a vendor was selling scarves. As we got closer, we saw that he was also
selling penguin stuffed animals. A group
of girls approached the booth, one of them on a bike. We greeted the girls and asked their
names. One of them said her name was
Camilla. I laughed, realizing how all
these odd images had suddenly worked together.
We asked the girls if we could pray for them, and I pulled one of them
aside to prophecy over her. I told her
that God had chosen her as a leader, and her peers would follow her
example. I explained that this was both
a blessing and a great responsibility. I
could see the wheels turning in her mind.
One of the girls from the church asked her about her personal
faith. The girl said she wanted to
accept Jesus into her heart right then and there. I couldn’t believe a mental picture of a
penguin, some scarves, and a bike had gotten us here.
The rest of the week
with the church was a huge blessing and encouragement to all of us. We had a church wide service on Friday night
before we moved on to Ushuaia and felt an unexplainable heart connection to the
congregation. My teammates and I prayed
for a guy with pain in his knees who wept after being healed of all pain. During worship, I saw him jumping up and
down, excitedly leaping for the Lord, knees good as new.
That night, the church
blessed us with an incredibly generous offering as well as prayers for our team. Person after person after person hugged and
kissed each one of us, weeping with joy that God had brought us together. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so loved by a
group of strangers in my life. But we
all knew our vision and heart for the Lord matched so perfectly and intimately
that it could only stem from God’s love.
Our connection was so strong that for the first time in eight months, I
left a city in tears, so overwhelmed by the love I felt in my heart.
To make things even
better, one of the men we met in Punta Arenas connected us to a church in
Ushuaia and arranged for us to be warmly received and housed for free during
our time there as well. After twelve
hours on a bus, we were greeted by a smiling gray man who escorted us to a cozy
church in the center of Ushuaia. A huge
hot meal was waiting for us, as well as an eager group of youths who wanted to
hang out with us throughout the week.
We enjoyed the beauty
of this incredible city, half-stunned that after eight long months of travel,
we’d finally reached the end of the world.
Despite my disdain for cold weather, I must admit that even I was
impressed by the majestic beauty of the snow-covered mountains in Ushuaia. The reflection of the mountains glittered in
the bay, and wispy clouds decorated the sky.
My team spent the week
teaching at a YWAM base and partnering with a few local churches. At one service, Ben and I prayed for a
little girl who had constant pain in her legs.
Her mom said the pain got especially bad in her knees when she
played. We prayed for complete healing, and
the little girl burst into tears as she explained that she didn’t feel pain
anymore. Moments later, I noticed her
running around with her friends, a smile beaming on her face.
Ben and I also had the
opportunity to pray for a young man, probably in his thirties, who had just
lost his wife. We tried to speak words
of encouragement over him, but our hearts broke at his pain. I hugged this grieving stranger as he cried
in my arms, wishing I could magically mend his heart.
Ben got choked up as he
reminded the man, “She is in a beautiful place.
She’s home now. She’s
home….”
As Ben spoke these
words, the man smiled and nodded. “I
know it´s true,” he declared. “I see her
in my dreams, and she is happy. She is
singing in my dreams.”
Sobering moments like
these remind me of why I am on this trip.
Sure, I love traveling and seeing new places. I love seeing people healed of physical
conditions and jumping around pain-free.
I love teaching at YWAM and speaking at churches and sharing stories
with congregations. But what I love the
most is seeing peoples’ hearts touched by the love of God. I love that even in the most tragic of
situations, I can see a glimmer of hope that only God can give. Life is short and hard sometimes, but what an
amazing gift it is to have faith in something greater. My time in Chile and Argentina has been such
a humbling period of experiencing God’s love in my life and seeing it in
others. And as much as I am excited by
the vision of revival fire spreading throughout Latin America, I know that the
most important thing is spreading LOVE.
Without it, every miracle, healing, and prophetic word is meaningless.
In two days, I will get
on a bus again and begin the journey back north. After heading south for eight months, we will
finally be driving towards home! I am
excited for all the adventures ahead of us, but I know the greatest thing we
will experience is deeper levels of God´s incredible love. I miss and love you all and pray that you are
experiencing His awesome love in your hearts as well. xox
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