Venezuela

I'm headed for Venezuela tomorrow. There is a conference going on there this week for representatives of all of the denominational affiliates in the Americas. I've been asked to come and talk about issues surrounding education accreditation.

I guess many of the would-be-pastors in other countries need to take some courses to satisfy the licensing requirements, but their countries don't have accredited institutions that offer those kinds of courses. So, we're going to talk through some possibilities for how Bethel might help.

I've never been to Venezuela, and my Spanish is not that great--in fact it is not good at all. It is one of those things that I've desired to learn, and I've even gotten tapes and listened to them a couple of times. But I've never put together the reliable action plan to make it happen.

I use this as an example in my spiritual formation presentations. I suspect that most Christians are in the "desiring" stage with regard to becoming spiritually mature (and learning how to do all the things that Jesus commanded). We sure wish we were spiritually mature, and even do something about it every now and then. But not many make it to the reliable action stage. More on this later.

There is supposed to be a guy in Caracas at the airport with my name on a piece of cardboard. I'm supposed to go with this guy to a hotel room, then Thursday morning he'll see that I'm put on the correct bus for a three hour ride to Valencia, where the conference is. I trust that I'll make it back here Friday night and not become some political prisoner of Hugo Chavez!