The work in Mancos is not easy. We walk the streets in the morning visiting members of the church that have stopped coming. We meet and talk with people in the streets, seeing how we can serve them, desperately trying to show them about the living Jesus that walks with us and talks with us. But most don´t want to recieve it. And why? Because we are Evangelicals and they are Catholic and something happened in Mancos that divided that town between the two. If I could say one word about the spiritual state of that city it would be wounded or even dead.
I stopped into the Catholic church with our translator, Eduardo, and looked around one afternoon as I waited for the girls. The entire church was filled with statues- of Mary, of a Jesus that looked ghastly and powerless hanging on a cross. The idols in the place where everywhere and there was no room for the Jesus that was Resurrected and living. Even one of the statues was enclosed in a glass coffin, Jesus with unmoving features and pale skin. That is how the religion was- dead, ready to be buried. Now not all Catholics are like this, in fact many of my friends are strong believers who love Jesus and walk with Him. But not here. Here it was easier to pray to a dead Jesus, a Jesus what doesn´t require anything of you except that you come to church on Sunday and say some prayers. It is easier to take control of your life and give this Jesus the guilt of the late night drinking, or the loose living. It is easier to play with a dead religion than to belive it has come to life again. It is easier to buy the ticket to heaven with a few prayers and good living than to give your life and find your inheiritance. Why does it hurt so bad?
I think it was the hardness of the people there and also the fact that the evangelical church was trying to fly with broken wings. Coming from Tumpa where the Spirit is rocking the place, it is hard. Amy and I had prayed for a woman in Tumpa who had had stomach pains for thirty years, we prayed for visions and healing and God gave both, praise the Lord. The next day, she told Amy that a Lamb had been in her dream and had taken away something from her stomach and the next morning she had felt better. Now, fast forward a week to where an older man says that he doesn´t need Christ because he has Catholiscism.
Touch me Lord that I can show the peoples of Your glory and might. Shake me Lord that I will not fall into slumber and resurrect Your power in my life. Please Lord, unify the church in Mancos. Bring healing to their wings that they might soar nearer to You and experience Your peace. Speak John 10:10 into that city of Mancos ¨I have come so that you might have life and life abundantly.¨ Tear up their hearts like they have torn up the roads, so that you might bring healing in Your touch. Bring praise to the streets and praise to the hearts of Your lost lamb. Leave the 99 sheep in the fold now, and seek after this one that is lost- this one that is dying and bring it back to You.
