The church is open. Curious locals stopped by all afternoon and kept asking if we were going to be having a church service. The fellow who gave us the key to the church, “Bill,” hung around and spoke with us the most. His role in the community was unclear, he lived alone on the edge of town but he somehow had the key to the church and gave it to us, so we felt obligated to at the very least tolerate his lingering. He kept pressing for a church service, you should shower so we can have church, you should eat up so we can have church. Bill refused to acknowledge the painful reality that in this community, the church as he saw it was dead. He also failed to understand that the way to bring about change is by doing things differently. We were there to “think different,” he was there to make sure we were by the book. Bill began to symbolize the negative spirit of religion. Although he was physically harmless, his constant suggestions and ideas became a distraction and required much prayer and concentration to overcome.
It would have been easy to just throw on a worship service for the community. Dress ’em up, sit ’em down, pray a little, speak a little and say goodnight. In some places, this is what the people need. For places that haven’t been reached and places that have never had a church, worship is a great way to expose the people to Jesus. This place was different. They were blessed with a church building, but they chose not to visit it, they knew about Jesus, but chose not to follow. They waited for others to come put on church services like they were the circus, quarterly events that locals spoke about for a few days after but had all but forgotten by the next week. It was for these reasons that we didn’t hold a community worship service but rather elected to have a prayer session that evening as a team. We prayed and spent time in the word for well over an hour.
Our prayers for safety were answered when we awoke the next morning enduring no nocturnal nuisances. We ate breakfast and headed out for day two. Day two was a confirmation of the first day’s challenges. Receptions were even less enthusiastic, conversations were less straightforward and it became clear that this community required long term work. We were planting seeds in the middle of a drought. We returned after another long day of door to door ministry, tired and a bit lukewarm. Our contact had learned some interesting background of the community and discovered that the whole area had been under the control of an influential witch doctor in the 1930’s. According to the people he talked to, many residents still believe his spirit has dominion over the area. This explained a lot. The plan had been to return home the next morning after spending another evening camping. After much prayer and discussion, It was established that we would instead be returning to San Juan rather than staying another night. I agreed with the decision.
The funny thing about the trip was that most of our work was done outside of the established ministry hours. Before we were about to leave we hiked up the mountain to pray over the town. We were on a mountain peninsula in a sea of valleys looking at a horseshoe of mountains bordering in the distance. It was beautiful and we prayed. We prayed for the people, prayed that their minds would be opened. We prayed for the land, that the darkness would leave such a beautiful place. We prayed for the community, that it receive a breath of fresh air, a new life. As we prayed under the setting sun, the wind on the mountain top picked up noticeably. Coincidence or not, it was a wonderful scene. We packed our bags and returned to San Juan with the knowledge that seeds were planted and change will come in his time, not ours.
