Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Run for the Border

Well…I am taking this show on the road to get to know another part of Bolivia.

This afternoon I will be hopping on a plane to fly to Tarija – a small little town of 170,000 in southern Bolivia. Tarija is near the border with Argentina and is supposedly a very laid back, relaxed place. I think since it is so close to Argentina some of the food and culture has made the leap across the border. I am told it is more Argentina than Bolivia and it is much lower in altitude than La Paz so the weather should be nice and warm. The region is known for its vineyards/plazas/parks. In fact, most of the wine from Bolivia is produced around Tarija.

There is an Anglican church there and the pastor has invited me down for a visit. My goals are simple: Meet the pastor and visit the church, visit/document some ministries that they are working with, take some photos/videos and get to know another part of this country, spend some quality time with God and just get out of La Paz for a few days and chill.

I will arrive this evening and I will be flying back home here to La Paz on Sunday. Hopefully, I will have access to the internet and if I do I will try to post some thoughts/photos for you.

Just pray for safe travels and pray that God would show me whatever He needs to show me while I am there.

P.S. Thanks to the folks who commented on my last post about dating. I got some great insight and I really appreciate your counsel.

Saludos y Bendiciones.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Missionary Dating

Missionary Dating – Not sure if you know the term or not.

When I was in the states the term referred to when a Christian would date someone who was a non-Christian with the hopes that they might come to Christ in the future.

Some people don’t have a problem with that and some do.

But for me here in La Paz the term takes on a little stronger meaning because I AM a missionary. And for me the term missionary dating just means…dating.

How do I do it? How do I navigate it?

It is one of the biggest questions that I am praying about right now. I want to be married. I want to be in a relationship but at what cost do I want to be in said relationship?

And just trust me when I tell you that there are options here in La Paz.

I realized the other day that, with regards to dating, I have the same struggles here in La Paz that I had in Atlanta. The basic problem is this: will I pursue someone that I have an amazing connection and chemistry with even though they might not have an intimate personal daily relationship with Christ? The problem is that, so far, the frequency of this problem is much greater here in Bolivia. Basically, there are many more opportunities for me to date here than there seemed to be back home.

Some reasons for this: I am a foreigner here. I have given up my life in the states to just serve others here and some girls just dig that sacrifice. Some girls just want a free ride to the states. I am different and some girls just like that. (You know how some girls in the states react sometimes when they meet a dude from another country and they hear that accent? Well that is my life here.) Plus I am just one hot dude. (Just kidding. Please.)

In the states after becoming a Christian I struggled with this from time to time. From time to time girls would come along that I felt a very strong chemistry with but they would be girls that did not necessarily share my spiritual beliefs. And sometimes I entertained the idea of dating them too long. I think sometimes I entertain dating non-Christians because deep down I don't really know if God will come through for me and bring me someone who I have an amazing connection with and someone who is also on fire for Him at the same time.

I have the same problem here. Is a faith in God and a belief in God enough of a value in someone that I might date? Or do I need someone who is so sold out to Christ that it makes me want to pursue Him more? These are my challenges and these are my questions.

And another layer of issues is that when I was in the states I really only felt accountable to God for who I hung out with and who I considered dating. But I have to tell you that now I feel accountable to so many more people. I still feel accountable to God of course but I also feel so accountable to my family, friends and church who are praying for me and who are financially supporting me to be here.

I kind of realized that my witness…my testimony is at stake based on my dating decisions. My reputation with the people that I am ministering to here in La Paz is at stake. My witness to everyone back home is at stake.

Really…the whole reason that God has me here is at stake.

But it is tough. Probably one of the toughest things I am dealing with right now. And I have received various pieces of counsel and advice. Some tell me to pick a date in the future when I will consider dating someone here. Basically, saying that since I just got here I don’t need to rush into anything and that it would be wise if I did not date for a certain defined period of time. Others have told me to just keep Christ at the center of whatever situation I am in. Others tell me that I just need to be up front with girls about my faith in Christ and if they are not down with that than they should only be friend material. Which is all easy to talk about and much much harder to do when you are here on the ground in another culture, in the battle, lonely and a girl shows a strong interest in you.

I know that I don’t ask for comments much on my Blog but I am asking today for your counsel and advice. I think that both Christians and non-Christians read my Blog and I am asking everyone to please comment.

What do you think about this? What is your advice to me as a missionary here in another culture who has a desire to date but who is scared of how I have handled these situations in the past?

The Bible talks about their being wisdom with many counselors.
So what better group of counselors than my Blog readers.

So please be my counselors. (You too Mom)
I want to hear it.
What is the wise thing for me to do with regards to dating?

Friday, April 25, 2008

Break a Leg

So. You might know that I used to work at a theatre.
A BIG theatre in Atlanta.
Actually, for about five and half years I promoted theatre in Atlanta.

Well...I was happy to have my first theatre experience here in La Paz this past weekend. For a few weeks in April there has been an international festival at the municipal theatre here. There were works from alot of different countries around the world.

Here I am with my program from the show.



It was freaky. As you can see by the freaky face on the program. It was one guy with a puppet on stage for 50 minutes. And not a Kermit the Frog nice puppet. A freaky, crazy looking "cuss like a sailor" puppet who said some of the crudest things I have heard in a while. It was a work from Holland but it was in English. And it was only $4 for a ticket.

I didn't care for the show that much but I must tell you that something just felt right about sitting in a theatre again and watching those lights go down...I miss it.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

New Doo

So I just got back from the barber.
Check me out.



This is my third try with the whole haircut thing and I actually think that I have found someone that I like.

Not that I am going to brush my hair straight back and gel it like it is in the picture but you know.

Just call me Daddy Yankee.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

In the Valley

I was in the valley yesterday big time. I was struggling. I was running.
I was hiding.

In fact, I avoided calling a few people back because I was trying to run and hide so much. How you ever felt like that?

And I learned once again that I cannot completely guardrail my life. It is not possible to guardrail my life so much that I don’t need Jesus anymore. Maybe that is not even healthy. Because if I can completely live a guarded, sheltered life free from the temptations of the world…why do I need Jesus at all? At some point we have to realize that we need to ask God for help. And if we don’t ask Him for help sometimes…we lose.

I realized that an intimate relationship with Christ is my ultimate guardrail. The closer I feel to Him the less I want to sin. And the further away I feel from Him the more I want to sin.

I don’t know what it is about me and equations lately but another one came to me yesterday….

The more in love I am with Jesus = the less in love I am with sin.

I struggled for most of the day yesterday but in the evening I realized that there was a tool that I brought with me that I had forgotten about.

The International House of Prayer live Prayer Room web stream.

I subscribed to this live web stream sometime last year and the reason I subscribed was so that I could go to it and use it as a tool to help me remember that Jesus is better than the temptations of this world.

But I forgot to use it. And I forgot that Jesus was better.

God has given me tools to fight temptation…the Bible, the IHOP Prayer Room, etc…but I just forget to use them sometimes.

Sometimes I think that I don’t want to use them because I KNOW that they will work. Ouch. That truth hurts.

Well I spent two hours watching a Misty Edwards set in the Prayer Room last night during my prime time of 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. This is the time when I really kick it into gear. And guess what…it worked.

Every temptation is an opportunity for us to grow. God wants to use temptation to help us grow closer to Him and Satan wants to use temptation to tear us down.

I have a choice every time I am tempted…I have the opportunity to decide and believe that God is exactly who He says He is and that He is going to do exactly what He says He is going to do.

I just wish I believed every time.

OK

I have to be a proud uncle for a moment.
Just got this from my brother.
I mean...come on. How cute is she?

I love you Averi.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Oh Atlanta

In just about seven and a half months I will see you again.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Hope


Hope.

That is what this photo means to me.

This photo has captured my heart over the last few days. I believe that this photo was shot in El Alto, probably one of the poorest cities in South America. And a city that is 30 minutes from my front door.

As I mentioned, I am working with a foundation right now who ministers to youth with addictions in El Alto. I am helping them plan and create some new materials to promote the amazing work that God is doing through them.

And I am just hoping so much that they agree with me and think that this photo should be the cover of the brochure. I cannot think of a better photo for the cover. The fact that the boy's head is tilted up a little makes all the difference in the world.

It means he has hope for a new day. Hope for a new life free from addiction.

Would you pick up this brochure if this was the cover? I know I would.

Awesome. I love my job.

2008 Goals

I have many goals and things that I want to accomplish here in my first year in La Paz. But during my time alone with God today a few goals just passed all of the others and came to the front of the pack.

I realized that although I have lots of goals...I really deep down, once you get through all of the other junk, have only three major goals for this year.

When I celebrate New Year's Eve in the states with my friends on Jan. 31, 2008 I want to look back on my year and:

1) Be less ashamed of Jesus and the Gospel than I am right now
2) Be more in love with God than I was the previous year
3) Know how to love others more than I do now

I encourage you to pursue these goals as well. No matter what you want to accomplish the rest of this year...seek to be less ashamed of Christ, seek to fall more in love with God, and try to learn how to love others more.

I truly believe that if we fight to pursue these goals most of the other things that we worry about seem to have a way of falling into place.

Friday, April 18, 2008

A Good Friday

Today was a good Friday.

This whole week has been busy but I was able to get a really big task finished today. I sent all of the information (text/graphics/photos) to the designer today so that he can officially create the PSMC program website. He will be creating the website over the next two weeks and then we will be presenting the site around May 7. Helping to get this site ready to go was a high priority item on my to do list and at least for the moment the ball is out of my court.

It felt good to check this off the list.

Also, I am helping a foundation that works with youth with addictions in El Alto plan and produce some new promotional brochures and I met with a designer today to get their project going as well.

And this morning I had a cool experience because I was able to attend a meeting where around 40 people gathered to discuss the issue of child abuse here in Bolivia. This meeting was sponsored by the Red Viva network here and it was a mix of churches and different organizations all coming together to make a stand and say that child abuse will not be tolerated here in Bolivia. They were brainstorming, planning and developing initiatives to combat this issue.

Later this year I will be more involved in these initiatives against child abuse as I help them develop a marketing/communication campaign to promote the rights of children and denounce child abuse here in Bolivia. Should be a cool campaign later this year. I continue to just stand in awe of all of the cool experiences that God is giving me here in Missionary Year One.

Here are a few shots of the group at work today...





Thursday, April 17, 2008

Gone But Not Forgotten

Big thanks and props to my boy Chris for being a champion for me. There is a big meeting/conference at my home church of Holy Cross over the next few days. People coming in from all over. And Chris will be hanging at the table below in the hopes of promoting what Holy Cross is doing in the mission field...which includes little ol me being here in La Paz.



I hope to get some email addresses myself. And he got the internet setup in the room so he is broadcasting my videos as well.

Sweet. Thanks bro.

And just to show you my appreciation I will let you take me to Zaxby's when I get back in December. Your treat.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

A big part...

...of my life right now is the website being constructed behind the screen that you see here...



I have blogged about the PSMC program before but it is a program that I am helping here through Red Viva. They are helping about 14 different organizations right now better serve the at-risk kids that they work with.

And I am helping them communicate that work.

I am working with a designer to launch this website by the end of the month. Yikes. I have never tried to launch websites this fast before but what can you do.

We need to launch by the end of the month because the international director of Viva will be visiting La Paz all the way from England on May 5-7 and I will be presenting this website to him while he is here. (I guess all those presentations that Virginia let me give to the board of directors at the Alliance is going to pay off. Thanks Virginia.)

At least the presentation will be in the Queen's English.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Curt On Demand

Ok. I am officially in love with www.mogulus.com.

I am sure that you have noticed the TV channel running above with different videos of my life and work here in La Paz, right?

Well...things just got cooler.

The channel now has a Video On Demand function. So...if you are like my impatient friend from a few posts ago, all you have to do is click the "On Demand" button on the screen above and then click the "New VOD folder" link and then the "New storyboard" link and there you will find a list of all of the videos that I currently have available to watch.

And you can choose whatever video that you would like to watch.

Tell me that is not cool.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Real Deal

So tomorrow (Monday) is my Sabbath. My day off. No work. No thinking about work. Just rest. Spend time with God. Blog. Sight-see. Playstation 3. Talk to friends and family on the phone.

Tomorrow is going to be tough though.

It is going to be tough because I really NEED to work tomorrow. This upcoming week is probably the busiest week project wise that I have had here in La Paz. I have something due or something going on pretty much every day and by taking the day off tomorrow I am not progressing any of these projects. I am losing time.

And for the first time I feel the real sacrifice of the Sabbath.

The true meaning of the day. The purpose of the Sabbath is to rely on God to provide me with seven days of provision when I only work six days. It is to rely on Him to show up and help me with the projects that I have to do this week. The purpose is to say to God that yes my projects are important but they are not as important as You. You take priority. By taking tomorrow off and resting in Him I am saying to Him yes, I have a lot to do this week, but it is not worth sacrificing my time with You and my rest in You.

Each week we have an opportunity to tell God that He is more important to us than our work. But it is definitely easier said than done. The demands of this world seem to have a way of destroying our rest in God. And in my case the “demands of this world” are projects that assist ministries advance the kingdom of God.

So in my case God is telling me to not worry about assisting ministries advance the cause tomorrow. He is telling me to stop and delight in Him. He is telling all of us each week to not worry about the demands of our jobs for one day so that we can connect with Him and receive rest and renewal for our soul. I think tomorrow could be a test. A test to see how sacred this Sabbath day is going to be for me. The other weeks have been easy because my work load was still pretty light but not this week. And I believe that the true test comes when the work load is heavy.

It just tells me a lot about who I am as a human when God tells me to take one day off and yet I struggle with that when things are busy. I mean…He gives me six days to work each week and I struggle stopping for one? It is the same thing with tithing I think. God only asks for 10% to be given back to Him yet we still struggle. We see things from the wrong perspective. We should say things like…Wow – I get six days to work each week. Wow – I get to keep 90% of the money God gives me.

What a God.

I don’t know what will happen with all of the projects on my list this week. I am going to work today to get as much done as possible.

But what I do know is that I am not going to give in and work tomorrow. I am going to rest in God and trust that He will give me the time, energy and creativity to complete what I need to do starting Tuesday morning.

I encourage you. Try to have a Sabbath day each week where it hurts you. A Sabbath day when business suffers. When you fall a little behind. Because if you do, I believe that you will be setup to experience the amazing provision of our awesome Heavenly Father.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Can't Wait?

So I was made aware by a friend who shall not be named that my new Curt TV is great but the problem is that this friend is a little impatient sometimes and can't wait for the videos to cycle through. I mean...you can't turn the channel on Curt TV...we are not ON DEMAND...yet.

I am adding new videos to the rotation often but if you are like my friend here and you do not have time to let the videos cycle through just go to www.youtube.com and search for videos using my username "litcur".

There you will find all of my videos and you won't have to wait.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

So...

...today I realized that I actually live in La Paz, Bolivia!
What in the world am I doing here???
(Sorry, some days it just hits me that I live here and it freaks me out a little bit)

Ok. I am better now.

One of the cool cool things about my life here is the flexibility that I have in my work. I am starting to really dig it. No more cube life, 9 to 5 life for me thank you very much. Some days God has other plans for me than the plans that I have for me. And sometimes I can work from a coffee shop instead of going into the office. And it's totally cool.

Below was my view this morning. 11 a.m. Alexander's Coffee Shop in San Miguel. Our second office. Across from me is Pablo, the director of the Red Viva Network here in La Paz and my boss. We were chatting about projects and writing emails. That's my cafe con leche doble next to the laptop. It is a must. I love my life.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

El Día

Today we had a meeting to discuss El Día (The Day). This is an event that I am helping to promote. The event takes place in various cities across Bolivia and I am overseeing the marketing for the event. The event is going to take place in November and it is a 24 hour prayer, worship and fasting event. It is cool because it crosses denominational church lines to bring together people across the body of Christ. It is an event that simply unites the body of Christ here in Bolivia.

You can check out the site at www.eldia.org. (Warning – you must read Spanish.). The site has some issues and as part of my role with this event I am going to work to fix those issues.

It will be a fun event and from a marketing perspective the closest thing to what I was doing in the states…plays & musicals vs. live worship events.

I feel myself getting busier and busier the more people find out that there is this crazy gringo here in La Paz now helping people with marketing for free. But I am also enjoying my rest and my time alone with God more too and I honestly cannot put into words the joy that I feel serving God here in Bolivia.

I am working on planning/developing two websites right now: one for the PSMC Program which I have written about before so I think you know about that program and one website for RockSalt Ministries. RockSalt is a small organization with a long history in Bolivia but a ministry which could be my main focus in the future…I will write more later and tell you about RockSalt.

I am also working with one of the foundations we visited, Foundation Adulum, to help them plan and create a new brochure to promote their foundation.

And, of course, the marketing plan and deadlines for the El Día event is also high on my list. I am busy and I love it. It feels great. I am hoping to wrap my part of the websites up in another week or so and my deadline for my work with Adulum and El Día is around June 1.

God continues to do amazing things here. I have some cool praises to share with you which I will share later… to be continued.

P.S. It is starting to get a little colder here in La Paz as winter approaches. I actually had to add another blanket onto my bed. No heating or air conditioning here. It is still pretty warm during the day and cold at night.

At least I don’t have pollen though, so I should look on the bright side.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

It is cool...

...how the shadow of the cross seems to show up in my morning devotional time. Can you see it?

Sunday, April 06, 2008

I Heart You

So last night I checked off another item on the "things I have yet to try here in Bolivia" list.

I ate anticucho. Anticucho is Cow's heart. I ate cooked Cow's heart last night and it was really really tasty.

And another update...on the "things that I liked in the states that I want to find here in Bolivia" list I have found...Gatorade.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Refuge

We all need a place of refuge. A place where we can go to be safe. A place where we can go to be healed. This past Thursday our project visits continued with a visit to one such place. We visited a foundation called “Adulam”. Which means “Refuge”.

This is a foundation in El Alto that ministers to those who live on the streets.

5 homes.

One for boys ages 13 – 18.
One for girls ages 15-28 (and their kids).
One home where they give the youth technical training in a wide variety of fields. (Because it is not just about helping the kids transition off of the streets…it’s about giving them tools and training that will help them all their life.)
One home where they give the youth educational training, have talks, events, activities, etc…
And one home that is going to open sometime this year that will just be for couples. These will be couples suffering from some form of addiction and if they have kids they can bring them as well.

Lots of amazing ministry and work being done. A strong spiritual component to this ministry as well. They attend church on Sundays and they also fast on Fridays. And Christ is at the center of it all. Nice.

Through my whirlwind tour of projects over the past 3-4 weeks I have really come across some strong ministries. Ministries that I really want to help from a marketing perspective and ministries that are definitely in need of help. This foundation “Adulam” that I just visited is a great example. In fact, I am meeting with the director of the foundation next Tuesday because she wants me to help them brainstorm and create some new promotional materials for the foundation and they are also producing a book and she would love for me to provide some advice and suggestions for the design of the book.

I tell you. God is just giving me so many cool experiences lately. Some of these experiences still feel surreal. I mean…last year I was sitting in a cube promoting plays and musicals and this year I live in a third world country, I visit poor cities, I sit in offices and try to think of ways to promote ministries that are reaching out the “least of these”.

I still can’t believe that I am here. And the more I settle into this marketing role the more I feel like I am right where God wants me to be. And the more peace and joy I feel. Visiting all of these ministries has been a very eye-opening process and I have learned a lot.

I can’t wait to see what next week holds.

P.S. I am just going to leave you with one final thought. This is something I just found out about. I have been learning more and more about prison ministries here and I was told that there are ministries that go into the jails just to minister and do activities with the kids there. Yes…the kids there. There are kids that live with their parents in jail because they have no where else to go. Maybe this happens in the states I have no idea but the idea of a kid living in a jail is blowing my mind right now and I am going to get to the bottom of it. My plan is to visit a jail as soon as possible to see what is going on with these kids. Can you imagine? Just take a look at your kids and thank God for the environment that they are in. Just remember that there are kids their age out there whose idea of growing up doesn’t involve McDonalds, Chucky Cheese and ballet practice…it involves a jail.

They are so young yet they already know what it feels like to be in prison.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Look Mom I'm on TV

So if you haven't noticed the big TV screen to the right you should check it out. I found out about this yesterday and I have been enamored with it ever since.

The website is www.mogulus.com

It is basically my own TV channel. I can hardly believe it. I can show the videos that I take down here in La Paz and, as you can see, I can throw in a few music videos and of course the Indiana Jones trailer. Whatever content I desire. Amazing.

The ideas of what I can do with this TV channel are running through my head like crazy. But what I do know is that it is going to be a great way to keep you updated on things that are happening with me here in La Paz.

The TV will always be running on my blog but if you would like to check out my TV channel outside of the blog you can visit www.mogulus.com/curt

Welcome to Curt TV.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

New Photos

I uploaded some photos from February and March. Only 41 photos. Highlights include my first trip to the soccer stadium and just some more cool shots of this city that I now call home. Check them out here.

Enjoy.

Feelin' Loved

So I just had to share that I feel really loved today. Six different people left me a voicemail today on my phone at the house and I just felt really loved.

Thank you so much. It means alot to me.