Tona Kautz – The Kautz Family

A Thought On Wisdom

Tona Kautz — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 14:49:02 +0000

A friend from high school passed away last week. I read a lot of posts dedicated to him and a consistent comment that appeared was “he made everyone around him feel loved.” What a beautiful legacy. What an incredible way to be remembered.

It’s made me think a lot about the impression I leave on others – not what they think of me, my appearance or even specifically my words, but what they feel when they have spent time with me. Do they feel loved? Do they feel encouraged? Do they feel frustrated or annoyed?

I often pray for wisdom. I’m about to hit that point in my life where the first number of my age is a four and yet there are many times where I still feel like a little girl, unsure, unsteady. I realize that at this point in my life, people do not see me that way. I am often given big responsibilities and try not to show the sheer panic that lies underneath the smile on my face that says, “Sure, no problem.” So I find myself praying for wisdom, the right words, the right actions, the ability to discern situations and know the right course of action.

When I read this verse this morning I thought again of that friend, of the legacy of love he has left. I thought about how love and wisdom go together. This verse sums up the legacy that I want to leave behind when my day comes, the kind of wisdom I want to live with day in and day out. Read this little chunk of scripture to see the difference in earthly and heavenly wisdom:

James 3:13-17 (NIV, emphasis mine)

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

But wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

I spent time with a friend yesterday and at the end of our conversation I felt inspired, a desire to deepen my relationship with God and strengthen my faith. I have to say, I was kind of surprised because I am supposed to have the mentoring role in this relationship, yet I very much felt like the student. At the end I was thinking about every word spoken and how I wanted to change pieces of me.

I want to live every day with this kind of wisdom, with actions that come from selflessness and the desire that others feel loved. That is the impression I want to leave in the heart of others.

~Tona

The Weekend of Ps – Passion, Prayer, Power

Tona Kautz — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 22:56:49 +0000

If there’s a phrase to describe this last weekend, it would be “passionate prayer”. On Saturday we had a day of fasting with the Castillo del Rey (King’s Castle) kids. Seeing this group of kids give up their Saturday and food to spend it in prayer was powerful. God is doing amazing things in this team, uniting them and preparing them to serve. In our next update I’ll share a little bit more about that story.

On Sunday evening we had what’s become known as “music night” at our house. It really started a few years ago when spontaneously a few of us began singing around the table. We started looking forward to nights our friends and the youth would come because, after conversation or playing around, inevitably someone would pick up a guitar for a sing-a-long. Somewhere along the way it moved from a sing-a-long to spontaneous worship. Before long, we were setting aside time to skip the playtime and move straight to the worship part. We have an open invitation for the youth to come sing, pray and just unload. Every experience is different depending on who shows up and the size of the group. Sometimes it has been a quiet, small intimate gathering and sometimes it has been a loud gathering of many with lots of instruments. It’s always different. A music night will usually get planned because someone will come to me and say, “Tona, I need a worship night.” Maybe they’re going through a rough time or need to escape life for a minute, and this has become our way to reset and recharge.

We had just had one two weeks ago, but it had been small. It had been beautiful and very special. Some who weren’t there for that night asked on Saturday, “Can we have a music night tomorrow?” Those who know me well know I struggle with saying no, but I really wanted to. Our schedule is overpacked right now and I couldn’t think of when I’d be able to get the house in order and food ready (because you know young people are always hungry!) I wanted to say no, but in typical Tona fashion, I gave in and said yes, in part because one of the youth leaders said he’d cook.

As people started showing up, I realized this was going to be a night leaning towards a bigger group. In the end, there were 16 of us. I prefer a smaller crowd generally because everyone can focus more. When there’s a lot of people, side conversations break out or the overall flow just doesn’t quite connect like we were expecting or it’s just a different vibe, but Sunday night was different. I think maybe everybody showed up expecting something fresh from God, needing to feel a connection, needing to turn their eyes back to Him. It was unlike any other music night we’ve had. As we sang and prayed throughout the night, several started to disburse through the living room and onto the balcony, some laying on the floor, each one in a private moment with God. It turned into an incredible night of prayer, truly more powerful than any we had experienced before. By the end, everyone was on their feet, praying for one another, speaking into each other’s lives, praising God with all they had. In one moment I sat down and looked around as all throughout the room groups of two or three were crying, hugging and praying.

Looking back on the weekend, I see that this year will be different than the last. I can see young people getting tired of the “same old thing” and wanting to experience the presence of God more. I see them being prepared to go beyond themselves and serve God on a deeper level, serve others wholeheartedly. I continue to be impressed by these kids that make it a priortity to be here, whether it is to play in the pool or cry out to God. I am excited for what’s to come and to see what this generation will do. If this past weekend was any indication, it is going to be a powerful 2017!

~Tona

Time Out

Tona Kautz — Wed, 25 May 2016 17:20:24 +0000

Life is crazy. I don’t know how many times I have said, see “Well, if we can just get through this week, next week will be normal,” but the reality is every week is different. Every week has unexpected events and interruptions. Sometimes it feels like time is getting away from us. When the interns were here last summer, one kept quoting Saved by the Bell, “No time! There’s never any time!”

Here is how quickly time gets away from me – I actually started writing this entry in February and then never took the time to get back to it. Alex had just left after a month-long visit to go back to school, we were working through sorting college options for Maggie and starting up 2016 ministries. Our friends as well were all dealing with chaos in their lives and it felt like every conversation we had we were just trying to all stay afloat and make it through. On a Monday night, Maggie returned from worship practice feeling upset after sensing a heaviness hanging over everyone. Nobody was experiencing joy. Everyone was just getting through to the next day. The next morning we sent out text messages to a bunch of friends and by early evening we had a house full of people ready to stop everything and drop it into God’s hands. It was beautiful. We sang and prayed and sang some more. Many tears were shed, many hurts and needs spoken and prayed for. It was a breath of fresh air. Everyone left that night with new energy and a new attitude.

But you can’t just breathe once and expect to live forever. Like it usually does, life kept chugging along and soon our days were packed with busyness again and we start realizing we were out of air again. This time, though, it seems like God has made a way for a full-on time out.

One of the very unglamorous sides of being a missionary is dealing with visas, immigration and all the red tape that goes with that. I don’t think we realized when we first signed up to be missionaries how many hours would be spent in government offices, waiting in lines, producing documents upon documents, etc., but in the midst of our weekly ministries, we have been spending the last couple of months trying to get our residency visas. It has been a process kind of like asking ten people for directions and each one giving you a different answer. We have tried to be diligent and do everything according to instruction, but every time we have to change to a new person to work with we have gotten a different answer like, ‘You have to come back later,” so we go back later and they say, “You should have come sooner.” So today we are in limbo, awaiting word and trying to figure out what to do.

Maggie and I have to leave the country tomorrow for a few days and come back to Colombia on a tourist visa to give more time for their residency visa application to go through processing. We are hoping and praying that Corey will receive his permanent visa today or tomorrow. Please pray with us that he will receive it. Should there be any other tie ups, he will have to leave Colombia on Friday for a few days as well.

To say it’s all a little chaotic is an understatement. I’ve had to cancel several things we had on the calendar for this week. However, there is a wonderful silver lining. While initially we were stressed out about having to leave the country and what we would need to do, now we are excited. See, Maggie is finishing her final day of high school today. She has done online school for the past few years and today she is taking her final exam to end her high school career. We’ve been feeling bad because while it worked out for Alex to be Stateside during our furlough just in time to go through all the normal rites of graduation, Maggie is here in Colombia without all the pomp and circumstance. We talked about having a party, but they don’t really do that here. There will be no formal ceremony because her school is based out of Atlanta and since it’s an online school there is no graduation walk. For months we’ve been thinking about how to celebrate this achievement in her life. It is monumental and we didn’t want to let it just pass by.

It turns out that the predicament we’ve been in with the visas has answered that for us. When we knew we had to travel we began searching for tickets everywhere, looking for the cheapest possible destination to satisfy our leaving the country. It turns out the cheapest flights were to a small island off the coast of Venezuela. It’s called Curacao and based on pictures we have seen and accounts from friends who have been, it is beautiful! Maggie and I will be spending the next few days there. We have to leave Colombia tomorrow. We have no choice, but it is absolutely perfect timing since Maggie will finish school today. We will celebrate Maggie’s graduation perhaps non-traditionally but in a grand way on a beautiful island and with a very special mother-daughter trip before Maggie returns to the States in the fall to begin college.

I feel like this is God’s way of saying, “Time out.” While I had played with the idea of a trip, I’m not sure it would have ever made it to reality without literally being forced to do it. So here we are, another crazy week, but that’s okay. This crazy week is leading us to a time to relax, to breathe again because the rest is out of our control – and amazingly, that is a relief.

-Tona

I Can See Clearly Now…

Tona Kautz — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 06:02:19 +0000

A few weeks ago we took Maggie to take her ACTs. Around noon we went to pick her up and the closer we got to the school where she was taking the exam, the more fog we encountered. We couldn’t see anything in front of us. We were talking to her on the phone, but we couldn’t see where she was and weren’t sure of which direction to go to find her. She was trying to explain where she was on the campus, but with the fog so thick, we weren’t even sure where we were to try and cross where she was. She said it felt like the middle of the set for a horror movie and, while I knew we would find her, for a few moments it felt scary for somewhere so familiar to be unrecognizable to the point of feeling lost because of the fog.

These last few weeks have been hard. I mean… hard. I love working in Colombia. I love the people. I love my “job” and all the highs and lows that come with it, but the last few weeks have felt somewhat out of order and uncomfortable – foggy. In the midst of it I have struggled with this question: are the difficulties an attempt to keep us from accomplishing what God has set out for us OR is it God himself showing us that it’s time to move in a new direction. I have wrestled with this question. I don’t think I’m the only one who goes through times of trying to figure this out. I hope I’m not.

Today we faced a test. Today, in a sense, I put God to the test. I was having a small conversation with God. Now, I know you’re not supposed to “test” God, but like I told you, I have had this question of obstacle vs. new path in my mind for a few weeks. So I walked into today thinking, “If God wants us here, he’ll make sure we get the extension we need.” I’ll put the full story below for those who enjoy reading, but the cliff’s notes version is this: today we almost had to leave Colombia. Visas and immigration are complicated things and even in the same office some will say yes and others say no. Today we needed a yes. We spent most of the day with a, “No problem, it will be a yes.” To a sudden, “no.”

While in the morning everything looked on track, by afternoon it seemed like an extension would be impossible. We were facing an incredibly short window of time to get big things accomplished and I couldn’t see how it would work out, but… I’m still in awe of being able to write “but”… amazingly a lot of people rallied for us and helped us accomplish the goal. We left with an extension and I left knowing that God was giving me clarity. Keep going. This is where you’re supposed to be, the people you’re supposed to be working with and exactly where I have placed you. The kicker is that I really needed that confirmation around 10am this morning so I could move on with my day and finish all the other things on my calendar, but the answer didn’t come on my time. It didn’t come in the block I had scheduled for it. The deadline was 4pm. The answer and resolution came at nearly 5pm – after the deadline, after I thought there was no hope. I don’t think God always works in the last minute or the “after-minute”, but I do think that sometimes we have to wait it out and learn to surrender and trust that He will take care of us.

I can see clearly now. While tonight I am absolutely exhausted from the stress of the day, I no longer have that doubt haunting my mind. I will sleep well tonight, maybe better than I have in weeks knowing that we are exactly where we’re supposed to be and there is much more work to be done. Today God used incredible people to make a miracle happen, to confirm in our hearts to keep going and to clear the way so we can. The fog has lifted.

– Tona

THE LONG VERSION:

Usually every year or two we have to renew our visas to stay here in Colombia. We’ve racked up five consecutive years of holding a visa, which means we’re now eligible to apply for a residency visa. I am an overplanner, overorganizer and I like to get these things done well ahead of time and nice and tidy. So a couple of weeks ago we went to the immigration office to ask a bunch of question about our next steps. Without dragging this out, the bottom line is there is a 20 day gap between when our current visa expires and when we officially complete a full five years of holding a visa. So we weren’t sure what to do about that 20 day gap. We thought maybe we’d need to get one more one-year visa or request the residency visa early – we just didn’t know, so we headed down to immigration and talked to someone about the process. Let’s call him Bon. I don’t honestly know his name because he jokingly introduced himself and his colleagues as various breakfast cereals and never actually disclosed their real names. Bon gave us instructions which were basically that we couldn’t apply early for the visa, but rather we’d have to return a day or two before our visa would expire to request a special 30 day extension to give us time to make the full five years. It made me nervous to get things together so close to the deadline, but he assured me it would be okay.

Fast forward to this past weekend. You have to make an appointment to go through any process in immigration, so I logged on a few days early to book an appointment. However, all of the appointments were booked up until the day our visa was set to expire. We joked about how if we were denied we’d have to jump on a plane and go to the beach for a few days so we wouldn’t be in the country illegally. If I’d only known what this day would look like, I probably would have never joked about that.

We arrived at immigration at 8:45 this morning. Bon and the lady he introduced as Chocokrispies (Cocoa Krispies) looked through our documents. We were missing a couple of extra photocopies and Maggie’s last passport that held her previous visas. “No worries,” they said, “go grab copies and the passport, fill out these forms and you’ll be good to go.” Corey drove home to get the passport while Maggie and I filled out forms and waited for Corey to return to present our documents. The second time we presented our paperwork they said, “Oh no, it turns out you are missing a letter from Corey. No problem, go to X business. They will write the letter. Next door is a notary to authorize the letter. Get it done and come back.” They actually told us, “Take your time. We’re here till four and everything’s good.” I asked if by chance we had any trouble getting the letter done or if anything else would deny us if we’d have to leave the country today. Bon said, “No, don’t worry. Everything’s good. Get this letter and come back and we’ll get you processed and on your way.” Good deal. We set out to take care of all of that and when we finished it was almost noon. We decided not to stop for lunch thinking we just had an hour or maybe even less before this process would be over and we could get back to life.

We returned to immigration and Chocokrispies looked at our papers. “Everything is in order,” she said and put us in the queue to go to the next station where we would get our extension. We weren’t stressed. Everyone was confident. Everyone was happy. No problem.

Before I go on, I should mention, I was having a small conversation with God. Now, I know you’re not supposed to “test” God, but like I told you, I have had this question of obstacle vs. new path in my mind for a few weeks. So I walked into today thinking, “If God wants us here, he’ll make sure we get the extension we need.” I wasn’t, however, confident in what that outcome might be.

Corey was called first. The man who called him looked like a young George Lopez, minus the sense of humor. It started off on a bad foot. A form that we had printed from the internet changed some information we had entered. Chocokrispies had told us, “No problem. Just put that answer in parenthesis and write the correct answer next to it.” George Lopez said, “You have to refill out all of these forms.” We started filling out the forms when he asked for another document that was not in the packet the first stop had asked us for. I felt confident because fortunately we had brought a bazillion documents with us from previous visas and processes with immigration. I showed him the forms and he said, “No. You need letters from this week. I will not give you an extension. You can stay illegally and pay a fine or leave today and come back on a tourist visa. Either way, you will lose the five years you’ve saved up and will not be granted residency.” I fought hard not to break down crying. Suddenly there was a problem. A big problem. I asked a lot of questions for how we could resolve the issue to get an extension until we could get the letters he wanted here in a few days. His constant response was, “No.” At this point it was almost 2pm. He said, “If you can get at least an email letter and a copy of the ID of the person (who happens to be the top of the Assemblies of God in Colombia, who also happens to live in Bogotá, a very long drive away) by 4pm, I will consider giving you the extension.”

We left. I panicked. We had less two hours to find an answer. It seemed hopeless. Going back to that question in my head, my insides were going nuts thinking, “This is the answer. Not the one I want, but this is the answer. If we can’t get a visa, we can’t work here any more.” We didn’t know what to do. We started calling pastors to ask for help, but our phones – get this – our phones wouldn’t call anyone. I don’t know if there was a problem with the cell phone company today, but neither of our phones could complete a phone call and when our local pastor tried to call us back it wouldn’t go through, even though we had full bars of service. We decided to go straight to the church and ask for help calling the national office, but we didn’t even know if anyone was there.

I have to tell you, we work with some amazing pastors. Before the lead pastor arrived, one associate pastor was on the phone calling an immigration agent he knows to help us figure out a backup plan and understand what to do next. The church secretary was on the phone with the national office. Let me just throw in another sidenote here to tell you how awesome she is. When I entered the church, I was a mess. She took one look at me and had no idea what was happening, but jumped out of her seat and said, “You look worried. Let’s pray, right now.” When she called the national office, I began to speak with the secretary there who told me that because of some processes the office had to go through with immigration, they would not be writing any letters until next week. At this point, I was convinced we’d be on an airplane within the next hour or two.

Our lead pastor and his wife, associate pastor and his wife as well as some youth leaders showed up all together, asked what was going on and everyone jumped into action. People were making phone calls, emailing, constructing letters, praying for us, doing whatever they could to help. They told us to go back to immigration and try one more time while they tried to get a letter from the national office. It seemed impossible.

We went back and the letter arrived to my email as we got there. We printed it off and went in. George Lopez was the first to see us and called us over. My heart melted because I had a feeling, mostly by the look on his face, that he would not be accepting the letter. He looked it over, showed another lady and begrudgingly told us to go back to the front window and start the process over. I went to Bon’s window. He looked at me with sympathy and frustration asking what could possibly be missing. I showed him the letter to which he said should not even be necessary and he said, “No problem. I’m going to put you with someone else,” a guy he earlier had introduced us to as Azucaritas (Frosted Flakes) would receive us. Chocokrispies looked at us and said she couldn’t believe he denied us and that we had to be there all day working on this.

A few minutes later Azucaritas and one other man sitting near called for Maggie and Corey’s documents. I was so nervous. The man with Maggie’s papers was hard to understand and very intense. I felt good about Corey’s papers because Azucaritas seems to be a good friend of Bon. Bon had handed our paperwork personally to him and told him to give us the extension. At one point, George Lopez called my name. My heart sank. I stood up and started to take my documents to him when Azucaritas shouted out, “No, I’ll take care of her.” Knight in shining armor moment right there… a pure movie moment that made me feel like the princess being saved from the tower!

By 5pm we left immigration, extension in hand, instructions in hand to finish the visa process, but fully and legally staying in Colombia. That question I’d been mullling over came back to mind. I was convinced we were going to be booted out of here. I was sure that this was God saying, “Time for something different.” It turns out I jumped the gun. I wanted assurance at 10:00 this morning, a solid answer, confirmation of whether we were about to take a turn down a new road or if it was time to jump higher over the obstacles we’ve encountered. It wasn’t until AFTER the four o’clock deadline, at the very last possible moment, after I was sure it was impossible and there was no hope… then God made a way. Show off. Nothing is impossible for him. We walked away in awe of so many things that had happened – how many people in this nation rallied and jumped into action immediately to make this possible, how we were blessed with Bon who went above and beyond to make sure we ended the day with an extension in hand.

I’m going to bed my eyes heavy, but my heart renewed. While today was technically about the logistics of getting through immigration, God knew my heart needed a crystal clear, no fog confirmation and did not fail to give it.

The First Two Weeks

Tona Kautz — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 22:17:08 +0000

Two weeks ago today we landed in Medellin, Colombia. It feels like we’ve been here so much longer. Here’s a glance at what we’ve been up to:

Cell Phones

The day after we arrived we went straight to the cell phone company to get our phones set up. After one issue after another about five visits to the office, signing and putting my fingerprint on a mountain of papers… Yesterday, 12 days after starting, we all finally have cell phone service.

House Hunting

The majority of our time so far has been poured into finding a home. All rental houses and apartments are individually owned. There are a bunch of agencies that manage the rentals but no one central service, so house hunting involves going to various agencies so they can show you their listings and driving around looking for phone numbers on places that are available.

We were thrilled that after looking less than a week we found a great apartment. Because we are foreigners it’s extremely difficult to rent ourselves, so a friend was going to rent the apartment and two other friends would be co-signers. Again, another mountain of paperwork. After getting it all together, we were ready to turn it in when the agent told us that the owner of the apartment wants to sell it, so we’d have people coming to show it while we lived there and, if it should sell, we’d have two months to move out. We didn’t want to live in that kind of limbo, so we decided not to take the apartment.
We started over and have seen many more houses and apartments. Tomorrow we have appointments to see a few more and we will hopefully make an appointment then.

We’ve been staying with a friend, who normally lives alone in a three bedroom apartment, but school is out for a month of break so her four grandkids have been staying here, too – not all at once, but there’s always one or two here at a time. They are such a sweet family. The three of us have been sharing a small bedroom, though, so we’re ready to stretch out a little bit soon!

Internet

If you’ve watched our group page you’ll see we’ve eaten a fair share of Burger King – not because we really like their food or miss American food, but because it’s the only solid internet we have found. Communication has been difficult but as soon as we get an apartment we’ll be ordering high speed internet and catch up on messages we have missed.

Youth Ministry

We were excited to reunite with the youth group we have worked with locally. It’s amazing to see how many of our kids from the children’s church have grown and transitioned to youth. Maggie jumped right back into the youth worship band.

We spent an evening out with some of our youth and most of the town of Envigado watching Colombia play in the Copa America soccer tournament and my heart broke for young girls throughout the park openly getting drunk, vaping and throwing themselves all over the boys. They couldn’t have been more than 13 or 14 years old. It confirmed in our hearts that the youth here desperately need to know Jesus.

On Sunday a 15 year old girl came to church with her mom and brother. She’s six months pregnant. They asked me to pray for them and took time to talk and tell me about their family. Their dad is in prison and mom is trying to keep the family going. We hope we can be a blessing to this family and help them through this time.

We spent last Monday all day in a youth leaders training seminar. It’s exciting to see that while we were gone, leadership has recognized the need for youth ministry. Over 120 people traveled, some as far as nine hours, to learn how to reach out to the youth in their communities.

Friends

We’ve had several nights out grabbing a bite to eat with friends. It’s so great to reconnect, to be able to hug and laugh again with people who have become so dear to us. We have a saying with our closest friends that says, “I forgot how much I missed you,” which just means that when you get together face to face you remember how great it feels to be with that person, how comfortable it is and what that friend brings out in you. We are blessed with amazing friends!

We also reunited with another member of our family, Angel.

Preaching

After just a couple of days back our local pastor called and asked if we’d preach on Sunday morning in two services. It takes time, after a year and a half of not practicing every day, to get your Spanish hat back on. However, I had recently preached at a Spanish church in the States and the theme of the message fit perfectly with what the pastor asked me to preach. Both services had a beautiful altar time at the end.

Pastor’s Meeting

Once a month pastors from all over the state come together to worship together, take communion and share what’s happening around the state. It was wonderful to see so many friends and hear how God has been working throughout Medellin and beyond.

Relaxing

We haven’t had much time to take a break, but at our pastor’s recommendation we did go see the movie San Andres, which by the way did not help me relax after a stressful day! Yesterday we were also able to grab a couple of hours out at the pool that’s part of the complex where we’re staying. It’s been hot, hot, hot, so it was fun to finally cool off!

That’s it in a nutshell. Many hours have been spent simply waiting. That’s Colombia. We’ve had a good start to this term.

The Purge

Tona Kautz — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 17:28:31 +0000

It’s been forever since we’ve blogged. I’m really sorry about that. With Facebook updates, Instagram pictures, Tweets, newsletters, etc., sometimes our updates come out in small blurbs and we don’t get a chance to express the full picture of what’s been going on. So it’s time to get things going again, let you in to see the ups and downs of this journey.

We are in “overtime”. That means, February 4th marked one year that we’ve been in the States raising money, but we haven’t yet hit 100% on our budget, so we’ve been given a short extension. That’s good and bad. The good news is that we have more time to raise funds. The bad news is that complicates a lot of things here in the States as well as in Colombia. Stateside our lease is up. We have been blessed with a wonderful missions house over this last year and it has been a refuge for us, but a new missionary family is getting ready to move in soon. We have only one week left in this house. On the Colombian side, we have a summer packed with interns, teams, a youth retreat, plans in motion, etc. The longer we delay in getting back, the more rushed and chaotic the prep time will be.

This is one of those times where it would be easy to fall into a great deal of stress and anxiety, begin to focus on the calendar, the uncertainty, the dollar signs and all of the people and things waiting on us.

But we can’t. We won’t. Instead, we begin to pray… well, we’ve been praying all along, but we pray for peace and God’s timing in everything and we prepare as best as we can for whatever happens. To prepare, we begin the purge. The most basic purge is that of material items. Our belongings are separated into piles of what we will take with us, what we will store (those big sweaters and winter coats will do us no good for the next four years) and what we will donate or discard. We’ve begun cleaning out closets and cabinets. I recycled what must have been hundreds of plastic grocery bags the other day.

Apart from the material, there’s another purge that must take place, a sort of inner purge. Recently Alex posted:

We laugh often as our kids often talk about “Americans”, as if they are separate from that group, forgetting that they are one themselves. There’s some truth to what Alex wrote, though. Sometimes we begin to change and let our inner closets become cluttered with things we never even realized were beginning to take up space. Changes can be so slow and small that we don’t even notice until one day we see something we don’t recognize in ourselves. For us it’s been as trivial as realizing we can now sing every song on the radio in English or know what people are talking about when they mention the latest episode of a popular TV show. It starts to cut a little when we realize that we spent a day with our minds and mouths less focused on the ministry plan and instead discussing what color is the dress. If we really dig deep into that inner closet, we see that this year has been difficult. There have been a lot of transitions and stress and, like Peter, instead of keeping our eyes directly on Christ, we begin to let worry, anxiety and even sometimes depression creep in and we start sinking in the waters.

We have to purge.

We don’t want to go back to Colombia with a cluttered minds and hearts. It’s not even just about going back to Colombia. We don’t want to live each day focused on the clutter. We want to walk in confidence, knowing God is with us every step of the way, with faith to move mountains, with overwhelming compassion to help every person that we can and with abundant unconditional love to show Christ to every person who sees our face and hears us speak. How do we purge? It’s time to look inside the closets of our hearts and minds and remember what’s really important, to know who we are – and whose we are. To purge the thoughts about the color of the dress, the entertainment stories, the stress and anxiety and instead fill our minds with Philipians 4:8.

What about you? What do you need to purge either materially or mentally? How do you do it?

The 2013 Recap: March

Tona Kautz — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 15:16:00 +0000

Most months we get some sort of request from churches to do a picture, healing video, diagnosis etc. In March we were part of a project where countries all over the world sent in a picture that said “Church Arise” with their country. We never got to see the final version, but this was with one of our Sunday morning groups and a fun start to March.

We also kicked off March with a surprise party for one of our friends, Sergio. Sergio is one of those people that is overflowing with talent. He plays, quite amazingly, several instruments, soccer and is studying to be some kind of chemical engineer. (I can’t remember exactly what his program is.) One of the things I love about Sergio is that although he has a really crazy and busy schedule, any time we’ve done a special event with the kids’ ministry that needs live music, he’s always made the time to come and play.

March also meant more travel, but this time together as a family. We spent a good portion of the month of March in the city of Armenia working with Missionaries Ryan and Caitlyn Jordan – and their two adorable children. Our first week in Armenia, I taught a class on world religions at CEDI, the missions training school. Five days of five-hour long classes (not to mention all in Spanish) was a huge challenge for me, but it was also a wonderful experience.

While I was teaching, Corey, Alex and Maggie were helping Ryan and Caitlyn with a team of students from Virginia Tech. The students are part of Chi Alpha, a campus ministry that operates on many university campuses all over the US. This group has made a commitment to help Ryan and Caitlyn start a group on one of the local campuses. They spent the week walking around campus talking to students to find out their interest in being part of a group, their feelings on faith and helping them practice English.

They also took a day to visit a local school and pass out “The Book of Hope”, a magazine designed for kids to teach them about God.

Being in Armenia gave Corey a chance to look at the land where he was asked to design a retreat center. The idea is to build a large chapel, cafeteria, dorms, etc. so that churches throughout western Colombia will have a place to go for camps, retreats and large events.

We stayed a second week in Armenia to attend the district prayer and fasting retreat. About 300 pastors and spouses gathered together to pray and fast for three days for families, churches and Colombia. The three days were filled with praise, worship and preaching. The team from Iowa was back in town as well to share and pray together with the pastors. It was a powerful three days.

Our pastor’s wife, Matilde, and one of our associate pastors, Carlos, were ordained during the district prayer and fasting retreat. They were presented the following Sunday in both services. Poor Matilde was so sick that day that she actually passed out during the first service, but she’s a tough cookie! A doctor came and gave her fluids and some medicine and this was her smiling big in second service. We’re proud of our pastors who have gone through all of the classes and poured into ministry to receive their ordination.

After we returned to Medellín, our church held a day of prayer and fasting. Corey and I were asked to speak. First of all, I was amazed by how many people took what was a holiday day off from work and spent from 8am until 1pm at church for prayer and fasting. It was really incredible. There was time of praise and worship that was sometimes pumped up, sometimes very quiet and times of prayer that were so powerful. It was a wonderful day!

We live about a block away from a Catholic church. On Good Friday the streets around our apartment were shut down as the people from the church marched, sang and prayed.

This picture is from another night as another processional went through the city of Envigado. There were several of these platforms to carry through the streets and they looked incredibly heavy.

We took the youth out for a night of evangelism at the local town square. Armed with balloons, candy and verses of encouragement they hit the streets and passed everything out. This was a big step for most of them who have never tried to share the gospel or ever stepped out of the church walls to share their faith. It was a small gesture, but at the end we had a time for them to share how they felt and many were motivated to work harder at being open to share their faith.

On a fun note, we were explaining to friends about how we normally colored eggs at Easter, but now that the kids were big we hadn’t really thought about doing it. You know how those conversations go… in the end, we were all coloring eggs! It’s always fun to share cultural experiences either when we learn something new about Colombian culture or when we can share something new with our friends here!

The 2013 Recap: February

Tona Kautz — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 18:20:00 +0000

In February, I (Tona) took on a new role in the district. I was invited to be part of the Western District children’s ministry planning team. I really had no idea what that would mean, cialis but it turns out taking on that role would change the course of our entire year and introduce me to some of the most amazing people in the country.

I flew to the city of Calí to meet with the team. We spent an entire day vision casting and practically planning how we could reach more children throughout western Colombia, how we could train pastors and children’s workers and how we could motivate churches to invest in kids. We worked non-stop for hours on end and planned all of 2013.

I came back from Calí the next morning just in time to gather my things and get to a teacher workshop. We had a great time training our current team and adding new teachers. Our children’s church has been growing and we were desperate to train new workers!

Speaking of our children’s church, our kids are amazing. Check out this video of one of our little ones singing her heart out to God.

We also serve on the youth leaders’ team at our local church. There isn’t a youth pastor, so as a team we have tried to keep things moving. It’s been a difficult situation because there is a big lack in organization and consistency among the leadership, mostly because everyone is swamped in other ministry and youth ends up being the last thing to get organized, which means it was often getting cancelled. In February, one of our youth services was run by Alex and Maggie, who talked about their experiences in youth in all the different places they’ve been. It was a great motivator for the youth to create their identity as a place for their friends and take action to organize themselves.

This is just a glimpse of how busy some of our days were in February, although you can also see here we try our best to take Mondays off!

Maggie kicked off another season of soccer. This year Alex has aged out of the school.

In February I was also invited to be part of the national TAMI team. TAMI stands for Children’s Adventures in Missions Time (translated, obviously). I met with the team in the city of Ibague for a weekend to plan training workshops for churches to learn how to teach children about missions. This is a great time to be working with children’s ministry in Colombia!

We finished February with a big birthday party for our children’s church kids – a day of music, games, food and fun!

The 2013 Recap: January

Tona Kautz — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 14:11:00 +0000

We started 2013 with several friends. It was a fun night of games, cialis sale fireworks, medicine water balloons, treatment hugs at midnight and LOTS of coffee. New Year’s Eve parties here go until about 5am or 6am. We took people home just before 5am and the streets were still full of parties.

On January 6th, Corey and I also celebrated 17 years of marriage.

At our local children’s church, every month we “travel” to a new location. In January, we traveled to Burkina Faso where the kids learned about “Ministry Now”, how they can be used by God in all kinds of ways, no matter their age or their talents.

Every month we paint a mural for the location we’re visiting. This is Burkina Faso.

On a family note, I finally got to “see” my dad. My dad lives in Mexico on a ranch and we have seen each other in person just three times since 2006. It was great to be able to finally use technology and talk face-to-face with him and my sister. We connected Colombia to Mexico to Chicago. It was great!

A different kind of family note, if you’ve kept up with our blog or Facebook pages, you will already know Juan David and Jonathan, but if you haven’t, let me introduce them. We met Juan David and Jonathan when they were teens in 2006. They became our Colombian sons to Corey and I and brothers to Alex and Maggie. Now that they are in college in Bogotá we don’t get to see them too often, but in January they came over for a week. It always feels like a family reunion and spiritually we always have a refreshing time. It’s also great for them because they go to school full time and work several jobs. When they come to Medellín they get to completely relax and recover. Juan David is an amazing musician and he is studying orchestra conduction. He is also the worship pastor at our old church in Bogotá and heads up Missions Kids Band, a band made up of youth and kids from the church who are currently recording their first album. Jonathan is finishing his studies in psychology and often plays in worship with Juan David. We love these two so much.

After Juan David and Jonathan left, we had another visitor, our dear friend Dany. This time was different, though. Dany got married! He brought his beautiful wife, Naara, with him. Dany is another old friend from Bogotá. We met him when he was part of Master’s Commission – we were both going through “new kid” stuff since he arrived to the group in Bogotá at the same time we did. Dany and Naara came to stay while they were on their way to Venezuela to become missionaries to the Karina tribe. It was a really interesting feeling for us, being on the flip side of itineration. Dany and Naara were visiting churches while they were here to raise funds for their mission. We helped connect them with pastors and shared our own experiences with them of God’s faithful provision to encourage them that God would take care of them in this walk of faith. While they were here we took advantage of Dany’s experience with children’s ministry and he did a special workshop for our teaching staff at the local church.

We finished off January with a huge event. A Christian professional soccer team from Korea named Goyang Hi F.C. did a tour through Latin America to play against popular teams. Our most popular team in Medellín (and arguably the most popular in all of Colombia) is Atlético Nacional. The goal of the Korean team was to play a friendly game as well as fill stadiums so the gospel could be shared. We took a group of kids from our church and watched as the stadium nearly hit capacity. The stadium holds 44,000 people. It was a phenomenal night. Atlético Nacional won in the end, but the real winner was God as several times through the night there were opportunities to tell everyone how much God loved them and many in the crowd would start chants for God instead of either team.

At the end of the night our family was invited to eat dinner with the Korean team, which was really cool because then we also met the owner of Atlético Nacional. Maggie and Alex play for the professional team’s soccer school, so we love this team! We had a chance to greet him and thank him for opening the doors for this huge event for kids. It was so large that highlights were even shown on ESPN and all of the news outlets here!

So there’s January. We had a great kickoff to the year. We weren’t able to spend the holidays with our blood family, but January was filled with our spiritual family and it was a great month and wonderful start to 2013.

Where did this year go??

Tona Kautz — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 01:08:00 +0000

Oh my goodness, medicine I knew time was flying by, viagra but I never realized that I have not blogged once in all of 2013. Here we are at the end of August and the year will be over before we know it. This year has been so busy, but in the best way.

This month is the first month we’ve really had a chance to breathe and, to be honest, it’s been kind of miserable for all of us! We’ve been so used to doing everything at 150 miles per hour and never being home, that this month it’s felt a little too quiet, a little too slow paced, a little claustrophobic and we’re all going a little crazy and itching to get moving in high gear again.

However, we’ve needed the break from big events and travel to make sure our everyday ministry was taken care of and a lot of the office work that’s been tossed aside was brought up to speed, not to mention it’s time to begin booking and planning next year for our year of itineration. There’s only 9 days left in this month to get it all done, organized and ready to start up again and life will start to feel crazy – and normal – again. Turns out, we’re just not that great at down time. (I should mention this hasn’t been a time of vacation, we’ve just been doing a lot more work from home and in our local church. My desk was lost below piles of translation projects, reports and other work.)

While I’ve got a few days to finish wrapping things up, I’m going to catch up here, too. The goal is to recap what has happened this whole year, a month a day. So for all four of you that read our blog, I apologize that we have neglected you. It’s so easy on Facebook to throw up a quick line, but I haven’t taken the time to really show the details of what’s been happening. This week and next we’ll be digging out the pictures and possibly some video to show you the amazing things God’s been doing here in Colombia. It’s been an amazing year so far and I am most excited about the last four months of this year and what we’re about to kick off.