Flores & Faith

Today is my anniversary of serving six years on the mission field. As an organization, we mark and celebrate missionary’s “hire” date. But for me, this day deserves to be marked, too.  January 24th, 2017 is the day I got on the plane in Indianapolis, IN and moved to Santiago in the Dominican Republic. Six years. Next to some of our faithful missionaries who have served 10 or 20 + years, six years might look and feel quite small. But it is not small. So much has happened, so many lessons have been learned, and so much growth has occurred. Thanks be to God! As I reflect over these years on the mission field, I selected six texts from Scripture and have attempted to summarize a lesson or a story for each that are tied to these past six years serving God and His people in Latin America.  There is definitely not a blog post - not even a well-organized one - that can sum up these past six years, but here is an attempt. It serves as more of a reflection as opposed to a year-by-year s...

“Home Service” is the term used for present-day missionary furloughs. However, it’s not a vacation, but a continued, active service to our home church, the Lutheran-Church Missouri Synod. This service looks a little bit different than our normal work, takes place in our “home” country, and includes a lot of travel!   The focus of home service for missionaries is to reconnect with family, thank and update our supporting congregations, and seek out new or additional support through congregations or individuals by visiting them! If you were not aware, all LCMS missionaries are responsible for raising 100% of the funds it takes to get us to the field and keep us there ( read more here ). God has granted faithful supporters over my five years of missionary service, and the opportunity to thank these churches and individuals is priceless.  Each visit looks a bit different, but usually includes a presentation which ranges from five minutes to a full hour. My main presentation this ye...