I am currently in the heat of my second all-squad month on the world race. This means that all 40 of the people that I have been traveling to our countries with are all living in the same place for a month. This month we are living in Pacasmayo a small beach town on the coast of Peru. We are living in a rather large compound that used to be an orphanage. Ministry here has been really diverse. From painting and VBS’s to evangelism and digging trenches.
Some ministry that has been so life giving to me on this race, though, has been evangelism. Although Romania was a very hard month for me and evangelism left a bitter sweet taste in my mouth I still enjoyed it. Knowing that I had at lest one great interaction with someone every day I went out made my day so much better.
I have a lot of fantastic stories from my time doing evangelism in Romania, and now that I have begun evangelism here I want to share with you a short story from that.
Evangelism in Pacasmayo looked a little like this. Everyone on the squad groups up and walks to the center of the town. When we get to the town square we separate into groups and start taking with people there. I started this particular day off this John Mark and Justus. We walked around a bit and had a few good conversations with some men who we walking around. As we started to find our selves wandering with no real sense of direction one of my other squamates called me over to help with some translating.
As I got to the group I found myself in a group with a couple of racers and three native women. The squad mate that had called me over told me that the three women before me were catholic. I had to laugh to myself. Being the only catholic on the squad has made me the first call when the word catholic is even brought up. From churches and the pope to everyday people of the denomination, I am constantly brought in for consulting. I must say though for evangelism it does get me in the door. You see when you try and do evangelism to people who are from the catholic denomination in the countries that we have been in some people close off a bit when you tell them that you are just Christian. I use this to my advantage. Telling other Catholics that I am Catholic gets them talking more.
This time was no different. When I told them they laughed and smiled and we talked a little bit about the people that I was evangelizing with. they were curious why I was around a bunch of Christians. They didn’t mean to sound aggressive they just didn’t understand. I told them that denomination didn’t matter we were here for the glory of God and that is what was important. They seemed to not only understand that, but very much s agree. We talked for a while about how the church in Peru teaches that Christians and Catholics are not the same at all. Each thinks that it alone knows God and the other is just fooling itself. I gave them my opinions on this of which I had many.
I started to talk to them about Galatians and the story of Paul going back to Jerusalem to meet with Peter, John, and James. I was cut off though. I had asked Tori (who is a far better Spanish speaker than I) what the word for circumsision was and after I did. The lady that I had been talking to notice the nose ring that Tori had. She said that the church say that christians can’t have those. Tori began to defend herself and the lady started asking leading questions. She was backing Tori into a corner and was arguing with her.
Then I cut in and asked a question that sopped the women in her tracks. “What is more important, the love of the church, or the love of God?” She said the love of God. I explained that God doesn’t care what we look like, He calls us to simply be with Him and I highly doubt that a nose ring would stop Him from keeping that desire. A church should not be the final say in what our relationship with God should look like, and I do not think that our God would be torn away from us because of something so simple.
