I want to share a little about one of our partners here in Palenque.
Noe is an amazing man of God, with great passion and inspiration. He felt that God was calling him to pastor a church, so he started laying the ground work for building up a congregation that will meet in his yard.
We have been given the amazing opportunity to work along side of him in this church planting effort. In the last few months, we have talked a lot about what that means, but none of us really knows what it looks like.
Our plan consisted of printing out some flyers and then walking around the neighborhood and inviting people to come. It seemed to be okay the first night, but after a few days, many of us were getting very discouraged.
Those who can speak Spanish were having some very good connections, but the rest of us were stumbling through awkward dialogues with little response. Some of us just tagged along, struggling to understand what is being said, and having little input.
With each service, the discouragement was mounding. The attendance was unpredictable and disappointing. Many of us struggled with the idea of how to plant a church without people.
It was a constant battle between being obedient to what we were asked to do, and wanting to see results. Why are we having so much trouble getting this going. There seems to be so many other miracles happening around us, and success in other areas of our ministry. Why are we not succeeding here? What are we doing wrong.
Last night, we prepared for the weekly Bible study as usual. We all walked around for an hour handing out flyers to invite people to the service. I know many of us were started out with a defeated heart, so it was a struggle just to be obedient in this small task.
We stopped and just prayed to God and poured out our disappointment and frustrations. When 6pm rolled around, our hearts sunk. There were only three people who had showed up.
We went ahead and began the service as scheduled. Noe sang some songs before James got up to share his message. He began by saying that God had put the message on his heart and he wasn’t sure if it was for the Mexican people, or for us Americans, or even maybe just for Noe’s family.
He shared a message about our value to God, and his value to us. How we must give up all that we have in persuit of Him, and how He gave everything for us.
After that message, somebody mentioned that the three visitors had left. I didn’t even notice because I was so focused on what James was saying. I think our hearts sunk even more.
Then Noe got up and shared a message for us. He talked about the man that invited all of his friends to a feast, but they all made excuses why they could not come. Much like we had just experienced. Then the man sent out and welcomed anybody who would come to enjoy his feast.
In that same way, Noe reminded us that we have invited many people to feast on the Word of God. Most of them made excuses why they could not come, and in that they have forfeited the blessing that was offered to them.
It is not a failure on our part. They had the choice. We were obedient to the task laid before us, and God will honor the call He put in Noe’s life to start a church.
As his final statement, Noe said that he believes it will be the people we didn’t invite that will come in the end. And with that, he closed the night with a few more songs.
In God’s amazing faithfulness, it was in those last moments that several people appeared on the street in front of his house. One man started talking to Eric, and a few moment later prayed to receive the Lord. His life was changed in that moment. It was amazing.
As Noe had shared just moments earlier, Christ would have done it all just for any one person who would receive it. In the end, our whole service came down to just that one man who had come, and received the gift of new life in Christ.
If that is all the fruit we ever see, it is worth every mile we walked to get there, and every flyer we passed out, and all the hours of preparation and prayer. It is worth it all even for one man.
