The Best of my Trip to Holland

Yes, God is good all the time and I was blessed with a trip to Holland last December for a training and exchange program with the most important partner CDA has. I had the opportunity to travel through the Bible belt, visit several cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht among others, and spend hours and hours in an office working.

I have prepared an album of pictures with what I consider was the best of the best of my trip. Besides a beautiful countryside, wonderful buildings, windmills, museums, rivers, etc. the Dutch people impacted me, but most important, the Christian people I met. The Lord has given me the grace to meet wonderful people my whole life and this trip was not an exception.

Instead if giving you a tour by the different places I could visit I want to share the best treasure the Netherlands has; Its Christian people, or at least the ones I met.

I met families with 6 kids who have dinner together, do the dishes, read the Bible and then sing hymns together playing different instruments. They can do this because they don’t watch TV and use the internet for work only, so the option left is to spend time together as a family (what a concept!).

This has confronted me. This “concept” of spending time as a family is something TV, Xbox, Wii, Internet, and video games have taken over and I’m not sure if this is right. I saw these families where every member plays an instrument, with children who are respectful, warm, kind and a testimony of love.

Also, I met business people who join together to take responsibility for a project in a third world country and prepare events, magazines, websites, contests to raise funds blessing others because they’re blessed. As a result, their businesses are continually growing and in general Holland is financially one of the most powerful countries in the world.

I visited a Christian organization at the Red Light District in Amsterdam that evangelizes the prostitutes and fights against sexual slavery with huge testimonies.

Another Christian organization built factories and warehouses to help locals bounded by addictions preparing them with the Word to change their lives.

Groups of housewives and families get also committed together to a project in a country in Africa, Asia or Latin America and work the whole year to raise funds and help these communities. They do it with a deep love in their hearts. I saw them crying while explaining how happy they are when they hear news from Colombia or other country with the results of their efforts. They love the kids and the communities although they've never been in those countries. Some of them spend their vacation time and money to travel to these countries and help.

A millionaire who has adopted children in Guatemala drove miles to invite us to have dinner to practice his Spanish and tell us about the wonderful experience he and his wife had with the children.

At work, the professionalism, diligence, leadership, integrity, and commitment was very helpful to overcome hours of meetings.

I had mixed feelings the last day in Holland. I was overwhelmed with joy for all the brothers and sisters who now will be friends forever but also I was having that sensation of leaving a family member behind. They were the best of my trip. I know our hearts were connected forever.

Update from Colombia

It’s been a while. Not easy to write a blog when I’m writing a bunch of documents all the time. The last thing I want to do is type again. Lots of things had happened in the last few months opening the possibilities for more help to the people here in Colombia.

My friend from the States moved back to Florida, my daughter, Erin and Kaya came to spend few weeks in the summer and helped at CDA. They don’t know how much we miss them. My daughter Jo moved to San Diego to live at 75°F instead of a 100°F but left tons of friends in Las Vegas. Mafe in the meantime is enjoying the rain in Bogota. O.M.G. it rains here!!

During this time CDA has hosted several visitors from Canada, U.S, New Zealand, Ecuador, and the Netherlands. Still expecting for friends in Florida and Las Vegas to come and see what God is doing in this country.

Also, several challenges have risen, in the organization and in my personal life. It’s interesting to see how every time you walk towards the purpose and the vision, immediately the obstacles, problems, and attacks show up. The weaknesses and the flesh also show up to remind me I’m a work in progress; as soon as I know the answer He changes the question humbling me to my limitations and giving me “opportunity” to be a better person. Some times I take advantage of these opportunities; most of the times I’m not good enough.

It was given to me the chance to go back to Cartagena with visitors from Holland who wanted to see the possibility to sponsor a home construction project for the poor in the community where CDA has its project. Visiting people’s homes and seeing the conditions is overwhelming. This is a project where the city puts some of the money and CDA needs to find donors to raise the remaining.

Then, I had to go and visit one of the most historically dangerous areas in Colombia called the Magdalena Medio (Middle Magadalena River) (Magadalena river is the largest longest in Colombia) where thousands of people have been killed for decades in the conflict between the guerrilla, the paramilitary groups, and the government army all mixed with the drug trafficking in the area. We were invited by the mayor to visit a small town, San Pablo, on the edge of the river to explore the option for CDA to take over the education, health and income generating programs. I went with a Doctor, the Scientific Director of CDA’s Health program and a co-worker who was taking care of driving and making us feel safe.

I knew it was going to be an adventure because of:

- An unknown territory famous for the internal conflict, the constant killing and kidnappings

- There was a supposedly 6 hours driving (really 10 hours) to the main city closer to San Pablo

- Then, we had to take a one hour chalupa (boat) trip on the river

- And the hot weather especially because I noticed we had a car with no A/C.

The countryside was beautiful, the river was huge, and the people warm and friendly. We visited the hospital, the schools, and the homes constructions sites in a very fast 5 hours tour so we could take the chalupa back to the city and drive another 10 hours to Bogota and the cold weather.

We talked to the people and asked them about the violence history and they told us there was a day when 80 people was massacred when the guerrilla, the paramilitary groups and the army took turns to take over the town of 32,000 people. They put most of the names of the people killed in a big tree in a park (see pictures). We are praying to do God’s will. If we are supposed to start the education, health, and income generating programs in this town and start a transformation of thousands of lives we will need the finances. There is no one NGO or a company in this area of Colombia because of its history.

In a 39 hours trip we spent 22 in a car and 3 in chalupa; we got home exhausted but motivated by the possibility to impact thousands.

In our trip back to Bogota we stopped in a place on the road with a gas station and few places to eat. When we were waiting for the food to be served I saw one of the most impressive acts of faith I have seen. Right there in the gas station I watched several plastic chairs and pews; something told me I should go there; as I got closer I saw a keyboard, drums, microphones, and some youngsters putting everything together. I told myself, only Christians do things like these. I approached them and asked if this was a church, they said, looking at me as an opportunity to share the Word, no, it is a concert and you are invited. How many people you think will show up, I asked, by faith, all of them. They were not ashamed of showing their faith and beliefs in the middle of nowhere, on the road, in a gas station. When we were leaving (we had a long road still ahead) less than ten people were in the chairs and they were saying over the microphone they were waiting for few more friends who promised to come before they start the concert. It was nothing like the churches I know in AmericaColombia with huge screens, air conditioning, ushers, coffee, children’s church, etc. but they were excited, joyful, and proud to have the chance of praise and worship God. or What a lesson for me and hopefully for some of us! (See pictures here)

I promise I will keep this blog more up to date. I know several of you have been praying for me and the less I can do is to keep you informed and show you how your thoughts and prayers are impacting in this country, its people and in my life. Some of you encourage me through your emails. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.

See you soon.

When the whole world rocks...

Saturday May 24st. at 2:20 p.m. everything was moving and I couldn't believe what I was experiencing. The curtains, the TV, the bed, everything was moving from one side to the other one. My reaction was to stand up under the door (I heard that was a safe place) and then I remembered "correctly" that under the door is the worst place. My second reaction was to start laughing, I guess, that was how I expressed my fear. I went back to my laptop to check on the Internet any “immediate” news.

Few minutes later it was all over the news. It was measured as a 5.6 in magnitude and the epicenter was located about 33 miles from Bogotá. That was not a nice feeling at all! I didn’t even think about my daughter Mafe; forget about relatives or friends. I called Mafe like an hour later to ask if she was ok. She was by herself in a 6^th floor apartment building scared to death and her dad didn’t call her! A brave man! Hummm Don’t think so.

Millions went to the streets waiting for replicas and fearing a worst shake. At least 6 people were killed.

At midweek CDA decided to go to a small town in the middle of the mountains where 60% of the homes were destroyed. We prepared groceries, personal care items and a health brigade and went on the next Saturday. We were 36 in total including 4 doctors, 1 dentist, psychologists, social workers, chaplains and security in 6 cars and one ambulance. It was raining the whole morning and that made the situation look worst for the habitants in the small town of Quetame. We were divided in three groups; one in a small arena, another in a refuge about a mile away and the other team went to the countryside, 30 minutes away. More than 120 people were treated by the doctors, 45 by the dentist, and dozens of kids and families were ministered and treated by psychologists and chaplains.

We arrived around 7:00 a.m., had a sandwich for breakfast and left around 4:00 p.m. starving and ready to kill a cow for lunch. We stop at a town called Caqueza and ate like animals.

It was an experience that made me think about how we are not ready in case of a disaster. How helpless you are in some situations where you can’t do anything, absolutely nothing. For the very first time I missed Florida and its hurricane season. Then, went to this place with huge green mountains and you feel like a little mosquito surrounded by the beauty of the nature in its more spectacular size, and then you noticed that all those gigantic mountains were shaken like paper.

We are still in a rainy season and the weather is awful. It rains like 3-4 times a day; there are more than 170,000 victims of flooding all over the country and we are all hoping and praying it will end soon.

Colombia, The Only Risk is Wanting to Stay

I know it’s been a while… I should’ve done something about it and I won’t make any excuses. Hopefully you will understand. Tons of things had happened since my last blog; I’ll try to be concise without missing the most important events.

First of all, thank you for the emails and the prayers; they have worked! I can feel them when I have been attacked, felt discouraged, lonely, or simply to know I am at the right place. I declare blessings in your lives.

I want to talk about Colombia and the communities. This is a country of contrasts; you can find the extreme poverty in 54% of its population (more than that in some cities); Kids with no education, no health care, malnutrition, pregnant teenagers, no basic utilities such as water, sewerage, power, and gas. At the same time, you can see the prosperity just like in any city in America with wonderful restaurants, parks, buildings, huge malls, technologically advanced, and wonderful natural resources. It’s like living in San Francisco or San Diego and Africa at the same time. The central government has a lot of support from the people, there is 86% approval after 6 years, but the local government in cities or departments, with some exceptions, is not as good as the national. The people has the same characteristic; Lots of contrasts, some extraordinarily warm and nice, especially in the tough communities, and others very uptight and unauthentic. Christian communities don’t differ much. In general, Colombians are good people with a sense of survival and pride, willing to have a different life and show the world that the image sold by the media is not the truth for 99% of the population.

Regarding CDA, the last three months have been hectic. I have been visiting the communities in Bogota and Cartagena and working on the biggest event I have ever worked on. De-worm 500,000 people in Cartagena. The big day was April 26^th and here are some of the numbers to give you an idea of the magnitude:

• 80 public schools
• 175,000 students
• 150,000 educational brochures
• 500 class rooms
• 150,000 Christian literature
• 3,000 volunteers
• 250,000 lollipops
• 500,000 people

Doors were opened everywhere and the unthinkable happened. Thousands of people in Cartagena were going to the schools to receive a de-worming medicine, education about parasites, Christian literature, and a candy for the kids.

2,350 volunteers from the Christian churches worked together as a team to cover all the schools and collect information to evangelize their areas of influence. We needed 3,000 volunteers and at the end a total of 4,500 showed up. Several offices from the local government including the Mayor’s office worked together to accomplish the goal. Operation Blessing International, the donor of the medicine sent an officer and a camera man to cover the event. The national government did the same.

The next challenge is to create a project to raise $500,000 to daily feed with the proper nutrition 4,200 kids living in these communities. If He gave us the strategies to de-worm 500,000 in Cartagena, He will do more for these kids.

I had a meeting with a group of Christian women from the U.S. who came to visit the projects and one of them told me something very interesting. She said that the U.S. should take care more about Latin America because we are neighbors and anything good you can do for your neighbors is good for you. Please keep myself, CDA, and Colombia in your prayers.

Love you all.

Colombia's Rating List

Cartagena 10

Beautiful city, great people!!

Bogota 10

Great city!!

Ice Cream 5

Too good! I gained 5 lbs!

Las Vegas 10

The best bakery close to the office

Rosario Islands 20

That's it! it's another world

The Caribbean Coast - Cartagena

Great news! It hasn’t rain in January. It’s colder early in the morning but warm during the day. Besides I had the opportunity to go to the projects in the Caribbean Coast, specifically in Cartagena, Barranquilla and Cienaga. Also, I visited an orphan home in the mountain of the Sierra Nevada in Santa Marta.

What God is doing in Cartagena and Colombia is just overwhelming. The timing, the connections, the mind, and the hearts of the people are almost in unity. There are some challenges with the culture but is improving (I hope so).

However, the weather cold or hot, the lack of some things in the personal area and other small issues lost all relevance when you see how the Lord is working for the communities. It’s very easy to practice every day the “Motivated by Love, It’s All About the People, and Christians Serve” when you realize than it’s an honor and a privilege to serve Him.

I want to share what the city of Cartagena (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartagena%2C_Colombia ) is doing. There is a local government decree which I want to translate for you (Only the first two articles), you will love it!:

Decree # 005

“Standards of Citizen’s Conduct and Coexistence”

The Honorable City Council of Cartagena exercising its constitutional and legal faculties decrees:

Article # 1:

Establish as a fundamental for the recovery of religious principles in the city of Cartagena, the practice of prayer and brotherly hug at the beginning of all daily activities in the local government entities, public and private companies, educational institutions, Police Stations, Military Stations, Assemblies and Stakeholders meetings, Malls, Radio Stations, Taxi Cabs Offices, Union Organizations, and in the family.

Article #2:

Establish the date of the Independence of Cartagena to practice of prayer for the city through massive events in public places with the organized participation of the various Christian denominations with presence in our city.

Also, I went to the schools and health center in Barranquilla and a pre-school in Cienaga. In Santa Marta, I had also a very unique experience in a farm bought by a Colombian family in San Antonio, TX to host orphans. They produce organic food and are in the process to be self sufficient.

I cannot choose which project impacted me the most. The project in Cartagena is a dream come true and a testimony of how things should be done for God in the middle of a very under privileged neighborhood. The city wants to use CDA’s model to be replicated and make it part of several programs around the city to fight poverty in the next four years.

In Barranquilla I was impressed on how a small church without resources built a school and the members took turns to teach because they didn’t have money to hire teachers.

In Cienaga, I saw one of the poorest areas I have ever seen. One of the biggest Banks in the country just visited the pre-school and they want to help us with the resources. Only God can do it.

Santa Marta is not a CDA project but what these families are doing in San Antonio, TX to keep the farm running and see the kids crossing the river bare foot every day to go to school just crunched my heart.

The testimonies and the lives transformed are so common that people kind of get used to it. I think I am the only one who gets excited every day and I want to keep it that way. It changes the perspective about our little desires and silly complains.

I am working on promoting the child sponsorship program and my goal is to cover 1,000 kids by the summer. I believe He will give me the ideas, contacts, anointing, help, support, etc. to accomplish it. It’s not easy for me but a piece of cake for Him.

Please keep me, CDA, and these communities in your prayers. So far, your prayers have given me the strength and the enthusiasm to start every day as the first one. Also, for the Child Sponsorship program “Toma mi Mano” (“Take my Hand”) to reach the small goal of 1,000 kids sponsored.

I encourage you to see the web albums from Cartagena and Barranquilla to see the pictures. They speak more than these words.

In His love.

Colombia’s Rating List

Food 10

What can I say? You have to come.

Ice Cream 15

I have to confess my sin. I am addicted! Pray for me.

Weather 10

Beautiful! I hope it last forever.

Traffic 1

I don’t want to talk about it.

Appointments 1

Nobody is on time. I’m sorry but I hated!

First Month in Bogota

The last two weeks God has blessed me with the opportunity to get to know the people at CDA (God is Love Corporation in Spanish) and to see His work through them. Experiencing the love of Jesus for the poor has changed the perspective about needs and desires especially when you hear the testimonies, when you see the transformation in the lives of the people, when you see thousands of people living below the lowest level of poverty just 40 minutes away from beautiful buildings, restaurants, luxury malls, and huge signs of prosperity.

The hope arises when you talked to the people at the communities reached by CDA. There are 5 areas of impact I have seen so far:

EDUCATION: Almost 4,000 kids from the poorest communities receive Christian education.

PTI: This is a vocational training center to teach parents and member of those communities, technical education and entrepreneurial skill to help them improve the level of their income. They learn bakery, beauty salon, sewing, jewelry, computers among others.

FORJAR: This is a small financial entity that lends money to the PTI graduates so they can start their micro-businesses. They send a social worker every week to check the procedures, the books and the business in general to make sure they are following the principles taught. FORJAR also finds jobs for the one who don’t have entrepreneurial spirit.

HEALTH: They have 5 Basic Health Centers where they have about 4,000 patient/each. HEALTH also has brigades (about 10 a year) in different communities.

GIRLS FARM: This is a home for girls who have been sexually abused and/or raped. The farm is located in a beautiful location outside the city with around 60 girls between 3 to 16 years old. They live there isolated from their families to protected, teach them, and minister to them.

All this work is done thanks to the sponsors. The biggest sponsor is a European organization and its little branch in Canada; the rest of the resources come from individual sponsors overseas and recently locally. Each kid’s education can be sponsored with just few bucks a month.

What I have seen is Word of God in Mathew 25:34-40 in action:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'

"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'

Christmas gifts to the Girls Farm

Last Friday I was invited to go to the Girls Farm to give away the Christmas presents. That was a beautiful experience from the start to the end. We played with them for a while and then attended a lunch together. A group of young adults a church in Bogotá led us to a time where all together were prasing and worshiping God. There were presentations, songs, dances, testimonies, awards, lunch, and fellowship for several hours. Then, the fun part, the Christmas gifts! That was crazy!! They were shouting, screaming, yelling, and laughing all together. The pictures will tell you how happy they were.

For me the experience made me think about my little complains and how God has blessed me. What impacted me the most was the thought of God full of joy as He saw these little girls happy and excited for the presents. For me, the shouting and screaming were the best demonstration of gratitude towards the Provider, the Creator, the Father and I felt convicted when I have received gifts and I haven’t expressed all the joy I should just to let God know how happy I am for His blessings. How many times we are like little children demonstrating freely our gratitude? Is there any more joy for a father than to see his kids opening presents? Can you imagine God waiting for us to open a blessing just to see our faces full of joy but for His surprise we barely smile or even worst we complain?

The next couple of weeks I believe God will continue moving here within the organization, in the hearts of potential donors, and in the lives of these communities revealing to us how much He loves us. I encourage all of you to do more than a polite smile when you open your presents during this Christmas. Remember, the Father has the ridiculous idea of you seeing His kids shout and scream out of joy and thanksgiving.

Please continue praying for me and CDA; you should see how powerful your prayers have been manifested.

Merry Christmas!!!

Colombia’s Rating List

Food 10++++++++++

Getting better and better

Prices 10

I had a hair cut with shampoo, rinse, and coffee for $5.00!! Cheaper than Joanie’s

Coffee 10

Starbucks? What’s that

Weather 3

It rains every single day. God has sense of humor. I ran out of Orlando to end up in Bogotá. I don’t understand the people who say rain is romantic. They have mental issues.

Traffic 1

I don’t even know what to say.

Stress Level 1
Even Christian organizations get stressed. Help me pray for strength to keep my peace.

First Week in Bogota

Arriving

After a very interesting and adventurous 11 hours layover in Mexico City I arrived to Bogotá 12 years later. First thing, I had a huge hamburger for dinner (called Todo Terreno¹). America invented it but Colombians perfected it. I was exhausted so that’s all I remember.

¹ All Terrain

CDA (Corporacion Dios es Amor²) Banquet

Friday night I attended the 15^th Anniversary Banquet at CDA where I met the President of the organization, Mrs. Missy Christie, her husband Carlos and Jim Chynoweth and his wife, the American missionary couple who has been in contact with me the last few months. I was excited watching the little ones smiling, having fun, dancing, singing and thanking God. CDA was launching a sponsorship programs called Dame Tu Mano³ to cover the education expenses (Christian education with health, dentists, food, nutritionist, and uniforms included for $45.00 month – See picture). Almost all attendees became godfathers of at least one kid.

However, I was deeply impacted when youngsters in their 20’s gave their testimonies about how they were kids living below poverty level when they started at the CDA schools, they graduated from secondary (high school), and continued their technical or college education fulfilling their dreams. They were thankful with whoever their sponsor was in Europe or Canada for allowing them to continue growing and they were grateful with CDA because they were taught God’s principles and values and they learned to live a Christian live. One of them (you can see him in one of the pictures) was young boy who finished school, studied computers, the organization hired him to teach computers classes at the schools, and then helped him to start his own business. Right now, he is under 30, owns a furniture factory with 7 employees (4 of them relatives) and still teaches at CDA schools. I felt convicted for all the times I have complained God for silly small things. He didn’t wait for welfare neither for the government to supply for his needs nor did he complain to God for his physical or financial challenges but instead, he studied and worked hard to become a Christian example.

Mrs. Christie shared her testimony as a daughter of a Christian missionary from New Zealand and how she regretted not having the privilege of being born in this country but she felt more than privileged to be raised here with a father who passed to her the love for the ministry and the kids (Lindsay Christie, her father passed away few years ago). She was telling the story that happened just a couple of weeks ago when she arrived at the airport and one of the anti-narcotics agents stopped her; she didn’t know why, specially because the agent shouted her name from the distance; when he got there, he told her he was one of her students in one of the schools and shared with her that because he was from a very poor area of the city, his application to work on that division was denied twice until the third time he was approved and how he was not only thankful for the education but he is now proud to serve his country.

As you can see, the evening was full of watered eyes, at least for me, and several reflections came to my mind almost immediately. First of all, I thanked God for allowing me just to be here and witness what He is doing to this kids, second, grateful with my Church for its support, prayers, love, its leadership and the tons of friends who are praying for me, and lastly, I can’t wait to start doing something to see those lives transformed in a way I had not seen before in my life.

² God is Love Corporation

³ Give Me Your Hand

What’s next?

Sponsors from Canada and Europe are still here visiting the facilities until Nov 23^rd. On Friday Nov. 24^th I will have a tour to the facilities with Jim Chynoweth and then we’ll meet to Mrs. Christie to see what God has for us.

Church

On Sunday I attended the church El Lugar de Su Presencia⁴ and the experience was overwhelming.

Reasons why none of you would attend this church:

• You need to make a line and wait until the previous service is over (they have 7:30, 9:30 and 11:45 services) to get in.
• Sit exactly in order wherever the ushers tell you
• No saving seats
• You cannot (really) cannot get in or get out of the main sanctuary once the Praise & Worship starts. No, means no.
• At the end of the service, each row leaves in order starting from the back and you have to wait your turn.
• Coffee is not for free.
  

Reasons why all of you would attend this church:

• Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Toby Mac, etc. music. Jabin is not famous here yet.
• Praise and worship is crazy. Everybody jump and leap and shout and kick (yes, kick like kicking)
• Very casual dress
• Not religious

I noticed something very interesting. Their Pastor is Colombian with Australian last name while our Pastor is American with Colombian last name (Yes, Perez’s are not from Mexico).

⁴ The Place of His Presence

Colombia’s Rating List (from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest)

Food 10++++

Outstanding, unbelievable

Prices 10

Lucille’s flavor with Teriyaki Madness prices

Coffee 10

There are no Starbucks here because this is the house of Juan Valdez and there are Juan Valdez Coffee stores everywhere with wonderful variety of the most tasteful coffee you can have at half the price of the guys in Seattle.

Weather 5

Cold and humid. Rainy (I just like the desert)

Traffic 1

Run for your life, stay at home as much as you can or close your eyes. Prozac is a valid option.

Stress Level 1

People are in a hurry all the time. They look like they have stomach problems and need to go to the bathroom especially when they are driving. You can feel their pain

Emotions - Confusion (1)

Confusion

“Confusion” means disorder; it is a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior, a mix of several things, the inability to differentiate, disorientation, difficulty distinguishing.

Synonyms for “confusion” are: hallucination, turmoil, disconcertment, discomposure, mistake, error, disorder, chaos, anarchy, trouble, mess, muddle, uneasiness.

Confusion is an emotion related with destruction, defeat, failure, being mistaken, losing. Pele and Maradona are considered the best soccer players in history, and I remember hearing commentaries from my friends saying that they never knew what was going to come out of the play; Pele and Maradona would confuse the other team. Baseball pitchers and batters, football quarterbacks, and basketball guards try to do the same.

The terrorists plan their attacks, not just to destroy a building or to make a car explode, but to create confusion. The greatest damage of the September 11th attacks in New York and Washington, in addition to all the lost lives, was the chaos produced due to confusion. Nobody knew what was happening and what else was going to occur. Wall Street was demolished, a lot of companies went bankrupt, and entire families moved to other cities, states, or countries. The terrorists achieved their objective by creating confusion in towns, the economy, and politics and among tourists and airlines, etc. Confusion is a weapon utilized to weaken one’s opponent.

God confused the Egyptians when the Israelites were crossing the Red Sea. The Scriptures declare, “At the morning watch, the LORD looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against the Egyptians’ ” (Exodus 14:24-25).

I will never forget the explanation I received about how confusion compares to the windshield of a car. I cannot drive a car with a misty windshield because I cannot see what is in front of me. I have to wait a few minutes until I am able to see where I am headed clearly. Confusion is like a misty windshield, and I have to wait until I have a better vision of what is happening in my life.

When confusion is present in any situation in your life, you should clearly understand that you are in the middle of an attack intended to make you choose wrongly and to make you fail. At that moment you should stop and wait until the windshield of your situation is clear. That is the right time to take a closer look at what is happening in order to use the proper tools so that you come to the correct decision.

In a moment of confusion, one person can kill another. A minute later, there is no confusion, but the decision has already been made and the consequences of the decision must be faced. How many of us end up in jail, how many of us have fallen into infidelity and adultery, how many of us have been fired, how many business opportunities have we wasted, how many of people close to us have we hurt because of too quickly making decisions when we are confused?