We had two meetings on this day, one with the local English church pastor and the other with the missionary who originally opened up the field here and in some other areas on the mainland in the 1950's. Both were interesting.
The English Pastor has been here for about 10 years and has a good handle on the ministries here in La Paz. The city is small enough that one can know all the churches, pastors and ministries pretty well. He also teaches at the Baptist Bible Institute here in town.
He had a few interesting things to say. He feels that there is a need for good solid biblical training of the leaders, but something that is interdenominational. It is difficult here in this small city to get the churches together on things. The baptists tend to stay to themselves and are not interested in gathering with other believers. He took a program summary manual and seems very interested in the pastor and leadership training materials.
I've been invited back in March for a quick trip to the Alliance of Pastors to give them an overview of the ministry and see who may be interested. I'd also like to talk some more to the English Pastor then to see how interested he is in possibly teaching.
He is also hoping to transition his way out of the job of pastoring the English speaking church- so if anyone knows a decent pastor who might be interested, there will be an opening here in the near future! It would have to be someone who does not mind being away from the snow and who enjoys living close to the water.
The second meeting was with the 80 year old pioneer missionary lady who opened up this field in the 1950's. She was a wealth of information with too many stories to tell at one sitting! We were very blessed by her counsel and wisdom.
She and her husband came to the southern Baja when it took 15 days to drive down the peninsula on trails. There were no believers or missionaries when they came. They not only worked here, but in many areas on the mainland- espescially in Nayarit.
AT 80 YEARs old, she still flies out to the Cora Indian people that they started serving 40+ years ago to encourage them. Her son flies there monthly to bring literature, or some training, or some other help to continue to build up the church.
Before she was a missionary, they had a farm with strawberry fields in Oregon. she told us the story of when she was picking the strawberries and noticed that each person had their own row of strawberries from which to pick- not everyone was concentrating on the same area- they were all spread out. and she sensed the Lord saying to her that that's the way it should be in ministry- not a bunch of people on the same row- but people going to rows or places where no one else was to pick there instead.
She knows very well the needs of the mainland and the abundance of work and missionaries here on the baja. she lovingly pleaded with us to consider the mainland rather than here. She then told a story about how they were teaching amongst a group of already evangelized people in the mountains. They had been very warmly welcomed and nicely received, but the people didn't seem to grow much under their ministry. The place where they saw the most growth in the lives of people were the ones they had reached themselves. She shared from her experience that it is much more productive to work in your own fields than in someone elses.
She spent an hour and a half with us and finished off praying for us. She prayed that God would give us the desires of our hearts- people saved and discipled to serve Jesus. It was then that I began to cry (just a little bit- and they were very manly tears, too...). God has been saying only one thing to us this week: i posted the verse on facebook a few days ago because it keeps coming and going in my conversations with Him:
Delight yourself in me, and I will give you the desires of your heart.
All week long i have been asking myself the question- what are the desires of my heart? This can be a tough question!
But when all is said and done-- there are many things that we like- that are nice, that are special and that make life nice and pleasant. But those are not the things that make my heart beat faster, or that get me excited as I contemplate them... i want to see Jesus glorified and lifted up by seeing the people He loves set free from their darkness and pain. I want to bring a smile to my saviour's face by investing our lives in those who carry the image of God- yet are lost and far away from Him.
This day was a tremendous blessing and a focussing moment. How this works out in real life remains to be seen. We will ask, seek, knock and follow and see where He leads.
Please pray for continued wisdom for all involved in a decision making process like this. Pray that we would have the mind of Christ.
Thanks for coming along with us on this journey. Please continue to pray for us!
I think the next day will have some math class in it for the boys and maybe some fun time for us.
God bless,
Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment