Here are a few thoughts and observations from my journal about the time we spent in Comalteco. This blog continues to lag about two weeks behind.
Anyway, enjoy.
Monday, January 23, 2006 Day 17
It’s raining here. Has been all day.
What’s really funny about that is, yesterday we gave our laundry to Carlos’ sister Marta who volunteered to wash it all by hand for us. This is a generous offer, no doubt, but in a short-sighted move on my part, I included in my laundry package all of my pants.
So, I am wearing my cargo shorts and my beanie, in the rain.
Yep, it’s a funny picture alright.
Anyway, yesterday it wasn’t raining. In fact, the weather was great. Kinda balmy, overcast, and in the mid-seventies. Can’t complain about that in January.
We attended Pedro’s church here in Comalteco, which is about 15 feet from my bed. The service was at noon, which I liked a lot. It was nearly three hours long, which I liked somewhat less. I was very honored that Pedro invited me to preach at his Sunday service, though I was somewhat concerned about picking a theme that would stand up to linguistic and cultural translation. I preached on what the church is and what it is not; that the church is not a place, but a people, not where we go, but who we are. I charged the people with the commission Jesus gave in Acts 1, that they are to be his witnesses in Comalteco, and in all of Mirador and Garranchos, and to the very ends of the earth. I hope they will remember it after we leave, but who can say for sure.
After church, we played volleyball with some of the local teenagers. I stink at volleyball, but being tall enough to just stuff the ball at the net is fun. People here think I’m a giant. It’s kinda cool.
Anyway, this morning the rain started and so we adjusted our ministry plans a little. We hung around the house until lunch, and then went off to minister. Of course, most of our ministry here has consisted of going to people’s houses for meals. The people here have been so anxious to host us that we’ve nearly been at a different house every day for lunch and a different house every day for dinner. I would never eat this much normally, but this is for the ministry, so I’m trying to find the room somewhere.
After dinner, we nearly cashed it in and went home because of the rain, but Katherine really wanted to visit with some people since this is the first ministry day she’s been out of the bed. So, we headed to the house where we’ve been meeting in the driveway each night, and we found that Cris, the man of the house, was just finishing putting up a giant tarp to cover the entire driveway and stringing a couple of light bulbs inside it. It was like a giant tent in the rain. Carlos said we’d wait around until 5:00 to see if anybody showed up. If no one did, we’d still head home.
By 5:15, we had nearly thirty people inside the tent. All clapping, singing, and praising the Lord together. It was cold and raining, and yet we had more people there than at any meeting so far. Praise God! It was also kind of interesting because Pedro wasn’t there. So Juan Carlos led everything, and it became a little more his church tonight because of it. He preached an awesome message on listening to the voice of the Lord. Many people came up afterward seeking prayer, and so we laid hands on them and prayed for them. Many knelt in the mud. I don’t know if I know anyone back home who would do that to be closer to the Lord.
We may have started off a little rough, but we’re getting our feet under us now. This church plant is going to soar. The people pray with such vigor and authority, and the community of believers is strong. God’s going to do some really amazing things here in the next couple of years. It’s exciting to think I will have played some small part in it’s birth.
I guess we’re doing some good here after all.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 Day 18
More rain, more meals, and another meeting tonight. There were 43 people at the meeting tonight, including ten brand new faces. Most of them were young people – teenagers actually. Carlos talked to them about the youth group he wants to start eventually on Saturdays, and it sounded like they agreed to come back tomorrow night for the fiesta. Meeting these teenage guys made me miss the youth group back home.
God’s funny. I come all this way, leaving my youth group at home and tearing my heart out in the process, and the people I’m most attached to here are teenagers. Carlos has a young guy named Christian that he refers to as his “disciple.” The kid is thirteen and he’s just a kick. He and I joked around most of the day today. We played UNO this afternoon with Carla and another young guy. The irony of playing UNO with Spanish speakers was not lost on me.
Tonight while we were singing, I had a vision. It was a church near the ocean, but not on the beach. Kind of elevated, like a hill or a cliff or something. And Katherine and I were there overlooking the ocean, and a crowd of people were behind us. I couldn’t see whether they were kids or adults or what, but it was a huge crowd. I don’t know what it means at all, but I know I’m going to talk to Andrew Sherman and Seth Barnes at the end of this thing to see if they understand it.
Tomorrow, we’re concluding our efforts with a big fiesta. There’s supposed to be live music and dancing, but I don’t know how that’s going down if the rain continues. Guess we’ll see tomorrow. Then Thursday is a day off, when we’ll probably go to the ruins to worship and pray, and then Friday morning we leave for Palenque. Actually, for Tabasco, where we’ll stay the night with Carlos’ friends before heading into Palenque Saturday.
That’s the plan anyway. With us, you never really know for sure.
Thursday, January 26, 2006 Day 20
Today was a good day. We spent it visiting the ruins at Tajin and getting in a little internet time in Poza Rica. We also had hamburgers for lunch, which rocked pretty hard.
The ruins were kind of a letdown. I expected to feel something, because of the age of the place, or because of the pagan rituals that went on there, or something. But I didn’t. I was expecting a stronghold of ancient evil and all I got was a bunch of piles of old rocks.
The truth is, there is no power in that place. Any power that may have been there at one time has long since died out, succumbed to the tourists and archeologists. It’s still a pretty impressive pile of rocks, but that’s all it is.
The best part of today, however, had nothing to do with Tajin. After we returned home, Miguel came by to ask us to come over and pray for his family. Miguel is a fifteen-year-old who God has put in my heart. I told him about my daydream, about meeting a young man named Miguel and telling him of God’s love and plans for his life. He’s a special young man.
As I knelt at the foot of his mother’s bed and prayed for her health (she’s battling some sort of intestinal disorder), my heart broke for Miguel and his family. I cried, and I asked God to bless them and watch over them. But what really struck me were Miguel’s prayers. I heard him pray that God would continue to change him, that the changes that were taking place in his life, even in the last week, would be permanent. I heard him pray that God would take care of his family and lighten their burdens. I heard him pray about wanting more of God.
Oh Lord, be with this young man and guide him in the way he should go. I pray that he never forgets Your great love for Him.
