Today we spent hours upon hours inside the church, getting poured into by Pastor Ben. We had many Bible studies on various things and after our morning session, we ended with the movie “Agora”. I don’t know if you’ve seen the film but it talks about the early Christians in the 4th century and the destruction of the world famous library’s in Alexandria, Egypt via the battles between the Christians and the pagans, and then Christians and the Jews.
It’s a very historical film, but it saddens me because it shows how the early Christians in this area during this time were completely hateful, judgmental, angry people who literally persecuted and killed everyone who was a non-believer and refused to be baptized as a “Christian”…the supposed “Christians” in this film were not Christians at all. The “Christians” went onto condemn not only people of other faiths, but women in general. They manipulated the scripture in 1 Timothy and negated any wisdom or leadership in women as evil and “going against the Lord and His word”. The film ends with a philosopher woman (my favorite character in the film) being stoned to death from refusing to accept “Christianity” and because she was previously a very important leader in the community.
I wept because this is a subject that I’ve had much experience with. When I tell people that I want to go to seminary and become a pastor they look at me like I’m crazy…not because they don’t believe in my potential, but because I’m a woman. I even had one man ask me about the World Race and assume that since I’m a woman, “I’d only be working with children and doing domestic things”. When I told this man I would have the opportunity to preach and lead in churches, he told me it was completely unbiblical and I do not have the approval of God to do such things. This is the kind of challenge I am up against as a missionary woman and a woman in ministry and leadership in general.
I know that I am no longer under the Corinthian bonds that some woman are still to this day under. The Bible says in Galatians 3:28 that because of what Christ has done, there are no longer any differences among us. “There is neither Jew nor Greekâ€� (no ethnic or national difference); “neither slave nor free” (no economic difference); “neither male nor female” (no gender difference), “for [we] are all one in Christ Jesusâ€� (NKJV). This verse refers to the equality we have in God. I have equality with God, even as a woman. If only everyone I knew believed in this equality. After the movie, my team mate Haile and I had to leave the Bible study session and visit our dear friend Mariselli. We had promised her in the previous week that we’d bring her children kites for them to fly and even though we had a study session, a promise is a promise.
We hopped in a tuk-tuk and had him take us to Mariselli’s house, but they weren’t home. We decided we’d just buy the kites and leave them in their house (because the door was open and I’m not shy). So we took yet another tuk-tuk all around town trying to find four kites for the children. After stopping in many “tiendes” (shops) we finally accumulated four small kites. Haile and I decided she’d run with the kites and drop them off at Mariselli’s house and I’d stay in the tuk-tuk and keep him outside the alley. Well, I am nervous talker, even in Spanish, and so the tuk-tuk driver was looking annoyed at us and our “kite errands” so I decided to try and explain what we were doing in broken Spanglish. As I was telling the tuk-tuk driver that we were missionaries at Mi Reto church, a woman that was walking by stopped suddenly, and asked me “Tu estas una missionara?”
We started talking about what I was doing there, and she said that she was desperately needing a church family and prayers of intercession and healing (her husband has heart problems and is out of work and her baby has bronquitis). Haile came running back while the woman and I were still chatting and she finally asked us if we would mind coming to her house and praying for her and her family. Haile and I looked at each other and decided that even though Ben and the other team mates would be wondering where we were, bringing the power of the Kingdom to a hurting family is much more important.
We walked with the woman down multiple alleys and finally made it to a tiny tin shack with four other faces looking back at us. The family of five was living in a 10×10 square foot room with one tiny candle burning for light. It was one of the most humbling experiences I’ve ever had the privilege to be apart of. The husband was just as willing as the wife for prayer and Holy Spirit power. Haile and I began praying, and what happened was not of the two of us…but entirely of the trinity.
Demons were cast out, healing was brought to the family (both spiritual and physical), and blessings of prosperity and provision were declared over them. After an hour of prayer (which only felt like 10 minutes) Haile and I decided to speak life into the family in Spanish. Haile is much better at Spanish than me, but the Holy Spirit spoke through me which was very powerful. We told them to have complete faith in the Lord and He will heal all things and bring all blessings to them. Then we read James 5 and Proverbs 3 to them in Spanish with their little tattered Bible.
There was a moment when one of the little daughters was holding up the candle for Haile and I to look up the Bible verses and my eyes met hers and I thought, “This is Jesus. This is what it’s all about. Serving Jesus through serving others and bringing the Kingdom to all who accept it.” We gave the family Pastor Ben and Lily’s information and told them that even though we were leaving for Nicaragua the next day, they needed to plug into “Mi Reto” church.
Rachelle and I at her preschool in the indigenous village of San Antonio, Guatemala
