I’m like an exploding popcorn kernel in the back of the truck. I fly this way and that all over the backseat, never knowing who is going to land where. I bump my head on the window on the right side, and land right inbetween the door on the left side and a teammates distorted array of body limbs flailing about.
That’s legitimately how crazy the ride up the mountain is to get to the indigenous Ngobe people of the Camarca.
This week we have been constructing and building benches for the local indigenous church. When we arrived, there were about 3 rotted wooden benches, barely in tact enough to hold any of the darling children pictured above. The church is merely a shelter to protect from rain; these precious benches it’s only possession. Despite the circumstances, the gospel is spreading and the church is growing, and the people come every Sunday.
I begin to wonder if we’d have the same dedication in America if there was nowhere to sit in church. Or no AC to protect us from the blazing heat of the summer sun. Or no heat to keep us warm in the midst of the first frost on a cool fall morning. Or no coffee after the service. I’d love to think that we’d have the same passion and dedication to the gospel as these simplistic mountain people.
The children run around barefoot up and down the slippery mountain side without a care in the world. We teach them how to play tic-tac-toe in the sand. I wonder if the kids in our Sunday Schools would laugh as hard and smile as big if we only had a dirt floor to play with. Or a crumpled up plastic bag to play volleyball with.
But what if that was all we’d ever known? What if our houses were shelters we’d constructed by hand that we only really used for gathering for meals or taking shelter at night?
Life in the mountains is refreshing and simple. Although resources are limited and there are a new set of challenges that these people face, they are happy and content with what they have. I know it’s too late for us to back track, but what if we started seeking simplicity just a little bit more? What if we limited the amount of time we spend with our faces buried in our phones and laptops? Or limited the number of TV series we follow weekly? What if we became more intentional about discerning needs from wants and self-seeking from seeking to serve? What if less really became more?
“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the people daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:46-47
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