Jason & Norah Skipper

Articles Written By: Jason

Back in Bolivia – Update!

Date: May 5, 2011  Author: Jason Leave a comment

Northern Iowa April 19, 2011

“Jason, be careful, slow down!” Norah yelled as she was filming an overturned tractor trailer that was one of the 12 vehicles we saw off the road in the snow while traveling south from Minneapolis to Fayetteville, Arkansas.  We were trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a place that still gets such snowstorms on April 19th!  What a great experience we had on this 21 day, 5,300 mile trip around half of the USA!  We got a real feel (literal) for the different climates, cultures and types of places that we could plant as we visited Maryland, Minnesota, Arkansas, North & South Carolina, Florida & Virginia.

Overall, we feel so much better about this next chapter in our lives.  We have no doubts about God’s guidance in planting this church (and network of churches in the longrun) in and throughout the USA.  He has showed us clearly what we need to do, and how we need to do it.  The conference in Orlando was an amazing experience and tool in preparing us mentally and spiritually for this upcoming adventure.  We also were able to talk there extensively with Craig from ELI (Emerging Leadership Initiative), who will be coaching us.  He helped us get a clear feel for the timeline and understanding of all that we need to do.  Our only doubts right now continues to be where.  We’ve seen a lot, and we hoped that God would just kind of hit us over the head and tell us WHERE, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  So… we’ll see.  Keep us in your prayers as we sort though it all.  We’ll figure it out soon enough.  :-)

We have so much to do here.  Prepare our things, sell most of what we have, find a new place for the church to meet and prepare everything for the pastors that will be arriving from Argentina.  It seems impossible, but it’s not… God is on our side!  Our Goal is to move back to the USA on the week of June 6th.

(IMPORTANT)  Prayer Requests!!! (IMPORTANT)

  • Please keep Norah & the kids in your prayers as we navigate through all of this change.
  • Pray for wisdom for the decisions we have to make yet.
  • Pray that God would help us find the place that he has prepared for the church in the next two to three weeks.
  • Pray that God would prepare the couple that will be coming from Argentina, and that they can arrive before we leave from here!
  • Pray that we can get everything done, sold off, and prepared so that we can travel the week of June 6th!

We’re Going Home!

Date: April 6, 2011  Author: Jason Leave a comment

Hello! Greetings from beautiful, finally cooler (after the hot summer) Santa Cruz, Bolivia! As we head into fall here in the southern hemisphere, we know that you are heading into spring! What a wonderful time of year spring is, with the vegetation and the birds returning… I haven’t been home in the spring since I came to Bolivia 15 years ago! This year, though, we will be home! We have big news to share with you in this letter!

Our Burden: For many years now, Norah and I have discussed the possibility of some day returning to the United States to live and to plant a church there. Every time we travel home, I feel a large burden for the people of our country. We are sent from the USA, working so hard to reach and impact the people of Bolivia for Christ… BUT the truth is that America is just as much of a mission field as most of the rest of the world is. Statistics show that in 2010 only 16% of Americans attended ANY type of church on a regular basisThat percentage is even lower among younger generations. The church is losing ground fast! In 2007, before moving to Santa Cruz, we almost took the plunge to move back. We even announced it to quite a few people. After returning to Sucre though, we felt that God told us “not yet.” Later when we felt God calling us to plant a church in Santa Cruz, I pretty well gave up on the idea of ever again returning to the USA to live.

The Announcement: Amazingly enough, here we are today announcing the following… The time has come! After 15 years of ministry throughout Bolivia, we will be moving back to the United States in June to continue our call to expand God’s kingdom through church planting there. God has opened all of the doors and has resolved all of the problems of our leaving Bolivia – in an astonishing way!

God’s Ideas: Let me explain. In December of last year, as we were praying and making our plan for the churches in 2011, we felt God tell us that the time had come for us to go. We wrestled with the idea for awhile, thinking that it was just our ideas or emotions; but we finally came to the conclusion that God really was speaking. Our biggest worry was leaving the churches. Although we have progressed a lot since we began here in Santa Cruz, we felt that leaving the church right now would be murder. We also felt that, although the church in Sucre is doing very well, they could easily veer off track without our close supervision. We have put so much time and effort into the work here and in Sucre, and so many of you have given so much, that allowing those things to happen wasn’t an option. I told God that if he really wanted us to go, then he would have to give us a viable option that would not only allow the churches to continue forward, but to do so very strongly! Honestly, that looked grim. I finally wrote the pastors who have worked with us for years from the church in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After several weeks of contemplation, they finally asked that Joel (the pastor in the Sucre church) and I travel to Argentina to talk to them in person about it all. What happened there just blew us away! After our trip, we know 100% that God was behind all of this, and that He has everything under control.
What’s Going To Happen With the Bolivian Churches: Basically, the church in Argentina is going to take over the leadership of our churches in Bolivia. They are going to send a couple as missionaries to the Santa Cruz church, and they will be guiding and helping Joel & Veronica in the Sucre church. This church in Argentina has more than 25,000 members in their congregation, and of those over 500 are Bolivians. These 500 Bolivians are uniting to pray and fast for the Bolivian church and to give towards our two churches. They have set a $5,000 dollar monthly budget to help rent better, more visible, centrally located places and to reach out to the cities through advertising and evangelistic campaigns! The pastor of that church said,

“God has called us not to just plant another church. When we go to a city, we have to impact that place for Christ. We have to touch all parts of society: the rich, the poor, the government, etc. The churches in Sucre & in Santa Cruz must become ‘THE’ church for that city. When non-Christians think of a church, they think of that church.”

All that we could say was “Amen!” We are now preparing the Santa Cruz church for our leaving and the new couples arrival. We have announced this to them, and although many are sad, there is a great deal of excitement also.

What We Will Be Doing: Over the next year to year and a half, we plan to plant a church in a small to middle size city somewhere in the USA. Norah and I will be traveling home next week (on April 11th), to do a road trip to visit several possible plant locations. We will be traveling up to Minneapolis, and down through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, North & South Carolina & Georgia. We will also be attending a church planters conference in Orlando Florida from April 26 – 29. After that we will return to Bolivia through May to finish selling off all that we can and then we’ll head back north with the entire family in June.

It may take quite a while, but once we are able to plant this church, we plan to continue working in Bolivia. We plan to use a percentage of all income in the church to help the Argentine church plant new churches all around the country. We also want to set up teams to travel there to help in building, evangelism, and anything that can possibly help advance the gospel in Bolivia.

Lake Titicaca, Island of the Sun, Bolivia w/ Norah's Family. Left to Right. Derrick, Jason, Norah, Rosemary (Norah's sister), Efrain (Rosemary's husband), Silvestre (Norah's dad), Susana (Norah's sister), Richard (Susana's husband), Caleb (Rosemary & Efrain's child), David (Norah's brother)

Our Current Situation and Closing Petition: We’re a little nervous about how all of you, our supporters, are going to take this. We know that you have given so much, and it’s very important to us that you know that what you have given has not been in vain. God has, is and will continue to do so much in Bolivia, and it wouldn’t have happened without you. This, although very exciting in some ways, is very scary for us. We are basically starting over. We have nothing in the USA. Both Norah & I are 34 years old with three children, and we don’t have a house or a car or a bed. Of course, we are trying to sell our things here, and plan to buy a few things there. We’ll be able to sell our car at a good price, but most of what we have will not sell for much money. (Even the car isn’t ours; it’s the Hand of Hur’s vehicle!) We’ll only be bringing luggage home. We have no insurance and the income that we receive here will not reach living back there. It’s scary, but even so, WE BELIEVE GOD and with pleasure we are taking this step of faith!

We ask that during this time, you would PLEASE continue to be faithful with your gifts and support. This move is going to cost a lot of money, and we don’t have all of that money at this time. (By the way, we’ve never had all of the money BEFORE we decided to do what God tells us to do! ☺) In June we will begin fundraising for the new church plant, and we will talk individually with you about continuing your support for the first stage of the planting process. But before that, we ask that you would help us in any way possible to make this transition smooth for our family. I HATE to ask for personal help, but we’re at a place right now that we have no other option! Please pray for us too!!! Thank you once again for everything, and may God bless you abundantly!!!

Love,

What’s Really Important?

Date: October 5, 2010  Author: Jason 1 Comment

[adsense-left]I think that too often, we as followers of Jesus get off track in regards to what’s really important. I remember my first years here, while I was studying in the seminary in Sucre, I would often get into heated discussions with others about religion. I was studying apologetics, which is basically understanding and defending our faith. The problem was that when I found the “truth”, that made what everyone else believed “wrong”. Not only people from other religions, but even people from other branches of Christianity. I remember seeing some pastors and leaders and just asking myself… is it possible that they will someday end up in heaven? I mean, they believed wrong… taught wrong… acted wrong… were heathens… liars… hypocrites… etc.

Even today I find myself looking at what other pastors teach, and all that I can say is… “that is just wrong.” In Latin America there are several branches of churches that teach that to be healed by God, you must bring a financial offering. The bigger your offering, the better your miracle. I’ve heard so many stories of pastors who even yelled at those who were bringing the offering… “Is that all?” That seems to go against everything that Jesus taught, and it certainly seems wrong to me. But the thing is that people are healed. Sometimes MANY people are healed. We as Christians have the tendency to credit anything that we don’t believe in, and still see as a ‘supernatural’ work, to the devil. But I have talked and had close contact with some of those who have recieved healing in those churches… and they seem to love God with all of their hearts. They live for him. Their lives have been transformed. They have been healed, as many have been in our church too.

So what does this mean. Is what that church is teaching correct? Should I just jump over on their bandwagon, or can I just dismiss it and say that the devil is dressing up as an angel there? We see this so much today. We talk about; the churches that teach the prosperity doctrine or others that teach that we should remain poor, those who are holy rollers and those who aren’t, christians who drink beer and those who won’t use electricity, those who read newer versions of the Bible, and those who won’t touch anything that isn’t the King James with a ten foot pole. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Of course, I think that I’M RIGHT! :-) Ha… the problem is that everyone thinks that they are right.

My Controversial Statement of the Day

I’m going to say something here that will probably be very controversial. Please, just hear me out! (I’m sorry that I can’t do this post in under 500 words.) Let me say it clearly though. I believe that WE are much more worried about theology than GOD is.

Ok, let me explain. We talk about theology, we argue about it. We go to church and learn about it. We separate ourselves from those who don’t think like us. We say that “the church over there is too liberal”, and “that other church is too conservative.” The truth is, in general, we are a VERY divisive people. Let me point out two verses before I get into what I think is truly important.

“Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, `Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye, then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.” Matthew 7:1-5

“Don’t grumble about each other, my brothers and sisters, or God will judge you.” James 5:9a

These are just examples of so many other verses in the Bible that make this clear. We are not the world’s judge. God is. Of course there are some ESSENTIAL beliefs that we must defend and teach always, but I think that OUR understanding of essential is different than GOD’S understanding of it.

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So What’s Really Important?

I think that if we read the New Testament with an open heart and mind, two things are the basis of Christianity. Love God and love your neighbor.

  1. Loving God
    God abolished the written law, and he put it in our hearts. Today, instead of asking for a list of rules and regulations, we ask God… how should I live? What do you want from me Lord. Following God is all about having a relationship with him, being led by his spirit. Becoming his disciple. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about walking and overcoming our problems, sins and frustrations WITH Him. It’s about learning to put him first in our lives, and trusting him in everything.Is this or that ok? I don’t know… ask God. Can I have sex outside of marriage? Of course not… but is it ok to go out with my secretary for lunch? Under most circumstances, I wouldn’t advise it, but… ask God (and your wife). Only you and God know your heart, and you don’t know it nearly as well as he does. Some Christians can drink a beer or a glass of wine without a problem, others can’t drink just one… if you understand what I’m saying. If you can do it TRULY loving and trusting in God, then there is no condemnation for you (Romans 8:1.)
  2. Loving our Neighbor
    I am convinced that the Christian life isn’t about following rules. It’s about relationships. Our relationship with God, and our relationship with others. When we talk about loving our neighbor as ourselves, that means exactly what it sounds like. Do you worry about your life? Worry about others too. Help them. Do you worry about your salvation? Worry about others too, share God’s love, share the freedom from sin and guilt and addictions, etc. with them. Disciple them. Call them, visit them, help them. Give to those who you can. Get your head out of your own problems and look around. See the sadness in this world. Stop judging them. When you see someone fall, pick them up, don’t kick them. Love them, accept them.I have talked to many people who have left the church. What is one of the main reasons they do? Because they find no love there. What they find is judgement. They need friends. They need love. That’s what the world needs. Are they finding it in the church? Really? Truly? Do you accept them for who they are? Believe me when I say that you can find 100 times more love in a group of alcoholic friends than you can find in a good percentage of our churches. Should that be? Now do you understand why I say that we tend to get off track? And yet we ask why our churches aren’t growing.

Conclusion

I believe that we all mess up from time to time… and we are all wrong in something.  But God’s not looking at that.  He’s looking at our heart.  He’s looking at what’s inside.

We need to get back to the true message of Jesus Christ. His message of love, hope and freedom… TRUE freedom for the world. God can heal your neighbor. He can heal people’s hearts. He can restore families, and make people truly happy again. Love God, and Love People.

May God bless you richly. PLEASE, comment, and if this message blesses you, share it with others!

Love,

Jason

God’s Glasses

Date: October 2, 2010  Author: Jason Leave a comment

Throughout most of our lives, we have heard these words… “God loves you.” But how many of us truly understand or believe that? We know it in our head, but our heart tells us something so different. We talk about God’s grace, and how he paid the price for our sins… but what happens AFTER we ask for forgiveness and we still keep messing up? Do we keep asking for forgiveness 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 10,000 times? Of course our answer is yes… as Jesus said “not seven times but seventy times seven” (Mt. 18:22), and if Jesus said that, he must do it too. The question I have is… How to you FEEL after having to ask for forgiveness 150 times for the same thing? The truth is that most of us feel ashamed, embarrassed, and instead of feeling great and free in God’s forgiveness and love, we hide like Adam and Eve. We are always wanting to live up to God’s standard, and although we know that He forgives us, we want to please Him continually with our promises and actions.

The problem is that we can’t. We always mess up, and we continually break our promises to God. You do and I do, and even the best of the saints do too. We strive to be better, but do we ever really get there? I mean… has anyone other than Jesus reached the perfection in this life? God doesn’t expect perfection from us, and he isn’t disappointed when we don’t reach it. He isn’t looking for perfect people. He is looking for people who are willing to trust completely in Him.

Jesus didn’t just die on the cross to die. He took our place there. The Bible makes it clear that ALL who sin deserve to die (Romans 6:23), and we have ALL sinned (Romans 3:23). But since Christ already died in our place, those who put their faith and trust in Him can live in God’s freedom and forgiveness. The thing is that we must remain in Christ. John 15:1-5 says…

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-5)

You can look at it like this. When God looks at me directly, I am full of sin. I am a sinner. I am doomed. There is no way that I can approach the father like this. He is holy, I am not. But when I am holding on to Jesus, and my full trust is put in Him, it’s different. The Father looks at me THROUGH Jesus. What does He see? Perfection. Holiness. He doesn’t see my sin, and my terrible condition, he sees Jesus. Jesus is like a pair of glasses for the Father. But those glasses ONLY work when my trust and walk is in Jesus. If I am not walking with Jesus… God doesn’t see me through Jesus… and I’m in trouble.

I’m not perfect, but I am Holy through Jesus’ sacrifice! We’ll talk more about walking with Jesus in the coming days. Feel free to leave commentaries and please share this with others! Blessings,

Jason

Blogging

Date: October 1, 2010  Author: Jason Leave a comment

On August 16 of this year, I (Jason) amazingly completed 14 years in Bolivia! I remember that first old pickup ride from the airport to the seminary in Sucre and knowing that my life would never again be the same. We were arriving with a short term missions team from the local western Maryland / West Virginia area in January of 1996. We only stayed physically for a little under two weeks then, but my heart never went home. Eight months later I found myself in that same old pickup… but this time, to stay.

Of course I hadn’t planned on staying for so long, but when God has something up his sleeve, it really doesn’t matter what we plan or don’t plan. There are several things in life that I planned on NOT doing. I said as a teenager that “I will never go to Bolivia!” (Really! It’s a LONG story). I have also said that I will never be a pastor… After living in Sucre for years (9,000 ft. in the Andes Mountains), I said that I would never live in a flat, hot, humid place like Santa Cruz. Today I find myself pastoring my second impacting church with my bolivian wife and three children in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. :-) The funny thing is that even though I had never wanted any of these things, I find myself incredibly happy and fulfilled. One of things that I have learned is that God knows me better than I know myself. He knows what I need and what makes me happy.

The truth is that I’ve learned a lot over the years, and I continue to learn. Just the fact of having lived and learned to do life in two totally different cultures teaches you a lot. What a contrast Bolivia is with the United States. I was taught personal responsibility, to work hard and to be honest. I was taught to be generous and loving towards others. I’m not quite sure how I was taught that, I just know that those are the values that I try to live by. You would think that it’s like that everywhere… but it’s not.

It’s one thing to arrive in Bolivia and see the need that so many people have. It’s another thing to understand WHY they still live that way, and as long as things don’t change INSIDE of them, it really doesn’t matter how much you help them externally… they will ALWAYS live that way. Needless to say; personal responsibility, hard work, honesty, generosity and loving others are NOT values that most Bolivians share. Please don’t get me wrong. I am not stereotyping people… what I’m saying is that there is a REASON people live like they do. It’s not just bad luck, or because someone stole everything from them. It’s because of their values and their way of seeing and living life.

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In the area of God, “Religion”, Church Planting, etc. I have learned so much too. My point is that I feel that I have a lot to share. Over the years I have felt the urge to write down some of my ideas, but I never did. There’s always been that small fear that in publishing my views and opinions about certain things, I can upset some of our supporters. What we least need are people who give so sacrificially so that we can do God’s work here in Bolivia to be upset with us. At the same time, I feel that we can give so much. I’ve decided to go ahead with it anyway… and just do it.

I’m going to take advantage of this space to talk about; God, Church Planting, Politics, Culture, Software, Weight Loss, Values, and anything else that comes to my mind. I’m just going to write, and I’ll let God do the rest. :-) I DO NOT want to upset any of our supporters. I do not want to be confrontational. I would like this blog to be a place where I can share my ideas, and we can get into great discussions about those ideas!

May God bless you greatly, and please come back often! Link to the site if you can, subscribe to the feeds, and we pray that you enjoy this greatly!

Jason

Latest Newsletter!

Date: September 24, 2010  Author: Jason Leave a comment

Newsletter September 20, 2010