Quien Vive? Cristo! A Su Nombre? Gloria! Quien Vive? Cristo! These were the questions by the pastor one saturday night and the responses by the members. Over and over did they shout and the presence of the Lord was evident in this place. It was evident by their joy, their excitement, and their spirit. The Lord was welcome in this place and He was right on time.
It all started with a walk through town. A teammate and myself were walking through the city and for some reason she felt led to stop at this one particular store. With no agenda we walked inside. She began to talk to the owner and with broken spanish we found out her name was Christina. We continued the conversation, with her talking and us trying to pick up any pieces of spanish we could understand and go from there. Our responses were limited, but when we would smile, she would smile and the awkward silences would be broken. She asked what we were doing here and we told her that we were missionaries. Her face lit up and she began praising the Lord on the spot. After about 10 more minutes of an interesting back and forth, she invited us to her church on saturday night. We accepted and with a smile and a kiss on the cheek we were on our way again. The language barrier we thought we had, the Lord brought crashing down in an instant.
Saturday night rolled around and 5 of my 7 team members decided to join us on our adventure. It started at 8 and we didn’t want to be late so we got there at 8 o’clock sharp. To our surprise we were the first people there. We sat awkwardly and shy for an hour until it finally began. Thats when the fun started. The first song began and it was called “Cristo Vive” or “Christ Lives”. Everybody in the church was standing up, dancing, and jumping up and down praising the Lord. We were getting wild and crazy for our Lord! About 10 minutes went by and we were drenched in sweat. We looked at each other with the face like, “This is the longest song ever!” But it wasn’t even close to being over. 20 more minutes of jumping, singing, dancing, and screaming “CRISTO VIVE!” went by and they finally stopped the music. The guy with the mic asks, “Cansado?” which means tired? And the crowd yells, NO! NUNCA! or NO! NEVER! So what do you think happened? YEP!! 30 more minutes of the same song with jumps, spins, dancing, and whatever else they could think of to praise the Lord most high. I’ve done the insanity workout before and let me tell you pops, this was way more intense. 🙂 I give my team props though. They didn’t stop and the Lord was dancing with us in heaven. Theres no doubt about that.
After the song was over, everyone sits down and we were completely out of breath. Then the guy with the mic comes on again. He looks at us and tells us its our turn to come up and lead worship. We look at each other with confused faces, but since leaving for the World Race, I told myself that I will do anything asked of me this year if its for the glory of my Lord and Savior. So we jumped up, our confused, timid faces turned to excitement and we sang the only three spanish songs we barely knew. Though they weren’t 30 minutes long and no dancing or jumping was involved, they gave us a standing ovation like we were rockstars! What a moment of trust in the Lord and trust in my teammates to get up in front of a church and sing 3 spanish songs we barely knew. Praise the Lord for that moment!!!
The service ended and they wanted us to come back and we wanted to come back. Next saturday rolled around and this time 6 of my 7 teammates were going, but we learned our lesson. We are not arriving at 8 this time and looking stupid again. We will get there at 9.
We showed up at 9:01 and what do you know. They are already jamming out to Cristo Vive. And the worst part is, we only caught the last 5 minutes of it. This means they’ve been going hard since 8!! If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this trip, time means nothing at all. So we missed the crazy long song and were a little bummed, but that quickly changed when they called us up to sing again. We were slightly more prepared this time, but not by much. We sang our spanish songs again and even a few in english because they requested it. Once again they loved our effort. After our last song we sit down and the infamous guy with the mic begins to talk to Alyssha, our only true spanish speaker. They go back and forth for a minute and next thing you know, She looks at us and says, “they want us to do a concert next saturday and I said yes.” We look at her, look and each other, shrug our shoulders and someone says our team motto, “Send It!” And send it we did. But this time we were gonna be prepared, this time we were gonna be ready.
So we were planning on practicing and making sure we were ready, but all week we had to work and friday was our big performance/program in the center of town. With time quickly running out and our focus shifting over to friday, we didn’t get the practice in that we wanted for saturday. But the Lord was with us and we were gonna let him lead the show. Saturday night rolls around and this time we got the whole crew. All 7 members of Crisco Unico making the trip to our new church family in Caranavi, Bolivia. We got Ellan with her guitar, Jonny on the drums (never played before), Kathryn deciding last minute to give the keyboard a try, and the rest of us singing, dancing, painting, and doing what I do best…..BRINGING THE ENERGY! After the hour of Cristo Vive, it was show time. We started with our first song, Tomalo, which we practiced once. There was a little clapping, very little jumping, and even fewer people singing along. Our next song had more of the same. It was going well, but we needed something more to get the crowd involved. Alyssha comes over to Brooklyn and I and says, “I know we’ve never done this, but I want to play this song and we are going to act it out.” Once again I asked myself, “Is it for the glory of the Lord? YEP! Okay I’m in!” We start the song and next thing you know the whole place is jumping, clapping, and worshipping while we are dancing around the entire building. People are getting pulled up on stage with us and when I finally look at the crowd, the whole place is going crazy for the Lord! Without thinking I grab the mic. Now I’m the guy with the mic. Its my turn. I yell, “A su hombre?” The crowd yells, “Gloria!” I shout,”Quien vive?” The crowd screams back,”Cristo!” Once again. “A su hombre?” “Gloria!” “Quien Vive?” “Cristo!” At this moment in time there wasn’t a care or worry left in the building. The Lord had taken them all.
We may not have been ready for the concert that saturday night, but because we trusted in the Lord with blind faithfulness, He was ready to use the unready and He did it with authority!
Proverbs 3:3-6
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”
