This has proved to be a very interesting, challenging week for us. Costa Rica is a lot more like home than the other places we have been, and with that comes the same closed minds and hardened hearts. There is a lot of family disfunction here, and that affects the body of the church in a huge way.
Man seem to be pretty absent. There is a huge lack of husbands, fathers, and male leadership in general. The church of Belen, inside and outside the walls, seems to be made up of mostly women and children. I see a lot of the women struggling to carry too much of the burden on their own. They seem to base their self-worth on their position and responsabilities in the church, home, and community. As a result, they can be very teritorrial and defensive about their positions. Instead of working together toward a larger vision, they have spent a lot of time ¨securing¨and defending their position.
I think we can all relate to that a little. America is also very driven by works. We feel like we can increase our worth by what we can accomplish. In that, we often insist on doing it alone so we get the credit instead of working as a larger body toward a common goal.
During our first week in Belen, we realized that our mission here is very much about the church in Belen and not in nearby Filadelfia as was originally planned. But we were unsure of what the focus was. We spent most of the first week getting to know the people, and the structure and environment we are working in. We met many people, and poored into some individual people like Jose (if you have not read this story, I strongly encourage you to read it at http://erichanson.theworldrace.org/index.asp?filename=jose-maria, and the follow up article that will be posted later today).
On Monday night, we came together as a team to review the past week and plan the next. We spent a good deal of time in Listening Prayer seeking the Lord´s direction and revelation. We all came to similar conclusions, that we really need to build up the leadership in the church so that any new member we bring in have a solid foundation on wich to grow. We each felt lead to spend more intentional time discipling specific people that we see to be leaders or potential leaders withing the church. God put specific people on each of our hearts to visit this week and spend some time with.
The other aspect of our ministry this week is to make intentional visits to people in the community that we meet last week. That has been great as well. A few people have made commitments to the Lord, and for that we always rejoice. Others are beginning to open up to us as we make ourselves more present within the community beyond the church property.
Our current plan is to poor into individual people and families this week, and spend our last week bringing them all together. We have also begun training the women´s group to seek the Lord through Listening Prayer. They have begun forming a vision for their ministry within the church and community, and will be meeting again this weekend to seek God for details about the plan to accomplish their vision. They were so excited about what they have learned. They had been praying for somebody to come and teach them, and God answered their prayers by bringing us and putting the same message on our hearts to share.
What and amazing God we serve. Who are we that He would choose to send us all the way to Costa Rica to answer the prayers of a few women that desired to hear the Lord?
Prayer requests
Please pray for the discipling that is happening this week. That God would help us to teach and them to learn in the limited time we have. Pray specifically that communication will go well between me and Yanery with my limited Spanish and her moderate English.
We also met with the current pastor last night to here more of his perspective and vision, and we will be meeting with the pastor he works under tonight. We have plans to get them together with the incomming pastor next week to give them an opportunity to seek the Lord together and reach a common goal for the future trasistion and growth of the church. Please pray that God will give them all similar visions to confirm his plans for the church.
Also pray that personal agendas will be set asside, and that all will seek the good of the Kingdom and not just the physical church.
It has been very hot here, and difficult to stay energized.
Please pray for energy and motivation for our team, and that we make the best of the time we have left.
