The other day I went into town with Lynne. We were off to buy another 5 gallons of white paint so that our team could finish painting the garden walls, the church wall, and Juanita´s porch (Juanita´s family is the groundskeeper of the property). And as we sat and waited for the paint, Lynne shared more of the La Quinta vision with me.
This vision started with the church, with the family style orphanage (parents and children… almost like foster care in the States), and the medical clinic. The next phase of the vision includes buying more property, property to be used exclusively for a Christian community. I know, it´s sounds cult-like, but not when it looks like the church community in the book of Acts. Everything was for the common good of the community, there was a sharing and loving atmosphere. And so as Lynne told me this vision, I got excited.
I got excited because before Scott and I even left Boston, we had been sharing this kind of vision with our small group. That the church is supposed to look like a community, not a place to congregate for 2 hours a week, call a couple of times and call it a week. That wasn´t God´s intention. Scott and I has even talked about trying to buy duplexes so our Christian family could live closer together, so that our lives could be intimately invloved. Ooohh, I probably struck a cord there… intimacy, that´s a touchy word. We reserve it for spouses commonly. We don´t think intimacy in the body of believers is neccessary if we have it with the person we live with. But that´s precisely what God wants!
This doesn not mean that once your community, your close knit bond is formed, your community is done. It means it´s time to draw in more people. If the goal is to bond and just keep together, the goal becomes selfish… it becomes cult-like. But if the goal is to love, the goal is outward. The community exists so that we can be fueled in love to give love away to those who don´t experience it on a daily basis.
So Lynne told me about how she wanted to purchase land which abuts La Quinta so that new houses could be built, so that the churchgoers who live in the barrio, who live in sub-standard housing with dirt floors and tin walls, could be welcomed into this community, where all the people help to support each other. Where everyone who lives there catches the vision! I´ve caught the vision, I caught the vision before we left on this adventure.
Does that mean I´m called to Diriamba? I´m still asking God about that one. What I do know is that I´m called to community, the way God designed it, not the way Americans do it. Start reading Acts… it applies to us. See if God draws you into that vision, and then see if you can continue to live separately, isolated, alone. Every now and again I say it would be easier to live alone, to not affect others, to not have confilict, to live without strings, to be shallow (read my last blog for that battle of the mind). But that´s not who God made us to be! He made us for relationship… not just ¨physical¨family relationships, spouses. But if you´re a part of God´s family, you´ve been called to experience that family, the way God intended it.
I suppose that challenges our comfort. I know it challenges mine. I´d rather just have Scott know everything about me. I´m ok having conflict with Scott, but to have it with my body of believers is overwhelming. And that´s exactly what I´m learning at the moment with my teammates.
You will have closer relationships with your spouse, or even one or two best friends, but God says LIVE in community. Not go to church on Sunday. LIVE all your days in community. It´s allright to be closer with one or two people, that´s called accountibility and discipleship (as long as your trying to grow closer to God and not just gossip or have pity-parties). But to surround yourself, to permanantly connect yourself, to essentially ¨marry¨a group of believers and chose to LIVE with them.
Does it sound possible? To some, yes (you are the dreamers), to others, no (you deal with logistics and see how practically it can´t happen). I encourage you to say yes, and then see what God does. If you say no, God can´t work in that. If you say yes, God can change hearts, He can change living situations, He can form bonds with people. My last encouragement is just say YES to everything God wants for you! It will make an ETERNITY of difference!
And my last plug, is just that, if you´ve been intrigued by Glenn and Lynne´s vision, please email them (the email is in my blog The Oasis at La Quinta), they´d be more than happy to hear from you. They are fully trusting God to supply the $ and the workers. You just may be one of them. Something to ask the Lord about, perhaps?
