On Monday three teams left
to minister to neighboring villages, leaving teams Pi, 5-Alive, and Kiatera here in Palenque
to work with a couple of different churches. My team is working with Pastor
Nestor and his wife, Selena, at Iglesia
Cristiano El Olivo. On Monday, our first day of ministry, we were scheduled
to meet at 4pm and then head off to a
house church. From my experience with house churches in the States I assumed we
would be going to a weekly sort of bible study. Maybe we would just sit and
listen, maybe sing a song or two, maybe even give a testimony.
Accompanied by Selena and afew church members, we began our walk along the colorful and vibrant streets of
Palenque. However, the house we stopped at was not very colorful, nor was it
very vibrant. It was made of dull gray cement blocks, with a wood panel over
one window and a metal sheet covering the other. After stepping through the
doorway I had to allow my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room before I
surveyed my surroundings… cement floors, a little table in the corner,
curtains hung up in various places to create individual rooms, and two plastic
chairs. This was not an American house and this was not going to be an
American house church.
We were greeted by two
women and a delightful little girl that after seeing our numbers began
gathering more plastic chairs for us to sit in. As each new chair was brought
in a new face came with it. When we were all seated there were five adults and
a handful of timid yet smiling children. With Dre translating for Selena the
house church began. Looking back now I would not call it house church but instead house
evangelism. Selena explained to us
that one of the women there attended their weekly service but the others did
not. She asked us to sing a few worship songs, which for our team is a bit of a
challenge considering none of us are singers, but we pushed through and managed
to sound half way decent. Afterwards I gave a brief testimony followed by a
message about salvation given by Dre. And that was it, a few simple songs, a
testimony, and little message, yet the outcome was far from little and simple.
We gathered two of the
woman and one of the men into the middle of the tiny gray room and laid hands
on them as we began to pray a Mexican prayer.* When are voices began to quiet
down Selena asked the three in the middle if they would like to receive Christ. Each of them
said yes. There were no questions, no reservations, no ifs, ands, or buts. They
simply accepted that they needed God in their lives and now was a good time to
start. There were tears and hugs all around. What a wonderful way to end our
house church.
Yet, my american mindset
soon took over. Did they really believe? Did they really just accept Christ?
Was that just for show because we were there? Is it really that simple? Why
didn’t they ask any questions? How can someone accept Christ into their
lives just like that? And then I began to think…maybe it is that simple. God
loves us, He sent his son to die on the cross so that we could be forgiven and
spend eternal life in heaven. What‘s not
simple about that? Our lives are so cluttered in the States that we have to
find room for God and Jesus. For many of us life is
just a little too crowded to fit anything else in. But here, life is lived at a
slower pace, it isn‘t as crowded, and it‘s
probably a little less complicated. There seems to be more room for God and his
love here.
church we are working with will come along side the three new Christ followers
as they are beginning their life with God. I pray that they would be taught and
discipled and grow leaps and bounds in their relationship with God. I also pray that this year would help me uncrowd my life, that I
would begin to truly understand that Jesus is all I need and there‘s no
question about it.
someone starts praying and then everyone joins in, everyone praying at once
creating a surround sound sort of prayer. A very interesting experience that I
would recommend trying out when you have the chance.
