“My job is to trust God”

When I was told that a man named Keith Onishi, the CCC Campus Ministry Director for Latin America (pretty much the head honcho for university ministry in this part of the world) was coming to visit us in the Dominican Republic this week, I had a few expectations. I was told he had spent the past eight years living in Venezuela leading Stint teams and national directors in the mission. Expectation number one was judging by the last name, he's probably Japanese (are we sure this is the Latin America leader guy?) Expectation number two is that his Spanish is probably superb by now, given his experience in Venezuela. Now, I've already personally said this to him and he laughed, so I know it's ok so say out loud (or in blog or wherever this ends up), but when we picked him up from the airport, two things were confirmed: he is indeed half Japanese, but his Spanish sounds less like a Venezuelan national and more like I did in high school when I had to do an oral exam. In his defense, he totally understands Spanish that is spoken to him and can speak it clearly. It just wasn't what I had expected.

But the coolest part of this surprise was that I was able to actually believe him when he said every day it is by faith that he trusts the Lord to give him the tools he needs to do his job. He even shared about a time from his first year or two in Venezuela where he was listening to this student just pouring out his heart to him, telling him personal pains that he hadn't revealed to anyone else. He admitted that he actually only understood about 25% of what the guy was actually saying and felt like it would kill the mood to stop him and ask for clarification. Years went by and Keith was able to build a deeper relationship with this student and be a crucial part of his spiritual growth. Although it was embarrassing for him to ask the student questions about his personal life years later that he had actually already told him those things in that first conversation, he realized that what the student needed more than anything was to know that someone cared. That someone would represent Jesus in that moment and sit in the grief and pain he was going through and intercede with prayer. How precious is that?

Friends, praise God with me that He has--in his perfect timing--sent Keith and the rest of the Fall Visit team here to us now as an encouragement to our mission at UASD. This exact frustration of not being able to connect with students on heart issues for the language barrier had been wearing me out, causing me to doubt my ability to be an effective instrument of God. But to hear that the Campus Ministry Director for Latin America--a Japanese, English speaking guy with no previous life experience in the area--has been trusting God with His purpose in placing him in that specific position, and in the midst of that witnessing an abundance of fruitfulness result from that trust, fills me with hope that our team can do the same in the midst of our weaknesses.

Keith's visit also helped revive my heart for the ministry here specifically in the Dominican Republic/Latin America as he shared some ways that God has been moving here in the last few years. Just a snapshot of how God is working through campus ministry in Latin America:

• Campus Crusade for Christ movements currently exist in half of the 42 countries in the Latin America/Caribbean area!
• Many countries now have movements in multiple universities in different cities, rather than just one. For example,
• A Venezuela national was just sent to pass on what they received through CCC by ministering to students in North Africa!
• CCC has presence in Haiti, a nation that is not only hurting from the aftermath of disaster, but also in spiritual darkness as voodoo and witchcraft remain a common practice.

Read more about Keith Onishi, his decision to follow the calling to Venezuela, and his ministry here. Pray for him, his wife, and three kids as they have just made the move back to the States this summer after 8 years of life in a completely different culture.