Ambiguity Reigns

With our short term teams we have always emphasized the words “ambiguity” and “flexibility”. Megan Cunningham from Grace Community coined the phrase “ambiguity reigns!!”, meaning we may make plans, but God directs our days.

I just returned from a quick trip up and back from La Paz where the plan was to meet some leaders from the various churches during the day, and share my testimony at a missions conference in the evening. I did share my testimony, and I did meet with leaders. But while visiting the Christian Radio Station, I was somehow invited to participate in a recording for a radio program. It was a dramatization about Norman Dobbs, a Canadian Baptist missionary who was brutally martyred along with his congregation of 8 believers in 1949. I guess my accent was just what they needed. In fact, they told me my Spanish was too fluent. Norman had a thick accent and poor grammar, so I had to sound more gringo than normal.

Later that evening, in the middle of the service and just before I was to share, I was told we would also be acting out the Norman Dobbs drama after the message, including me having to preach briefly as Norman did, and then be “killed”. In a matter of a couple hours I went from being a visitor, to a voice recording, to an impromptu actor. And it turned out to be a powerful drama not only for the audience, but also in my heart as I was impacted by this simple Canadian man and 8 rural Bolivian farmers who gave their lives for the gospel here in Bolivia.

Ambiguity, flexibility, maybe it’s just a good way to go through life.