Peeps,

Here's a summary of our first day of ministry with OR4:

We had a great time working with OR4 yesterday. We got to San Nicholas in the afternoon. We were dropped off at a Nazarene church where we prayed and sang before beginning our ministry. We split up into 3 groups and walked around the village for about 2 hours visiting homes, praying with people, and inviting them to our bonfire-get together-shindig that evening. Everyone we visited was so happy just to have us there. As soon as they saw us coming they always ran to gather all the chairs they owned for us to sit on. Many people asked for prayer for illness, family problems, and spiritual growth. One girl even asked for help accepting Christ into her heart. Her mom gave us all cucumbers as a "thank you". At around 6:30, we walked down to the park to find a surprisingly large crowd of locals. We lit the fire and kicked off the evening with a few songs. Rachel gave her testimony, and then Omar (a pastor from Salama) gave a quick but solid teaching.

(Rabbit Trail Alert)

I am glad God has raised up someone like Omar to minister to the Achi full-time. He is not afraid to address the spiritual issues at hand and preach the truth. It seems that a lot of the Achi churches have many of the same issues as American churches. One issue that seems to be reoccurring here is that many of the Christians want to put on a "spiritual show". This is difficult to explain, because I do not know what is really going on in their hearts (maybe I'm just being insensitive and judgmental), but I think I see it for what it really is because I am often guilty of the same. It is most obvious in prayer. It seems that some of the Christians here were taught to force themselves to become overly emotional, to the point where they are weeping, and just repeat the same things (like "God you are great") over and over to try to prolong their prayers. Certainly Christian's should be emotional about the relentless grace shown to them in Christ, but it seems as though it is thought that their prayers are not valid unless tears are shed. In a large group setting, this is compounded as many attempt to "out-spiritualize" others. Does this sound familiar? Ya, it happens all the time in America, and I think it's exactly the kind of thing Jesus warns against in Matthew 6...

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others... And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

Luckily this is one of the things Omar addressed in his teaching last night. I write all of this with some hesitation, because maybe it really is all legitimate. I have seen that these people truly know what it means to fully put their hope and trust in Christ. They don't have material things to appoint as their gods as we do in America. They have to constantly trust in God that he will provide everything - even their next meal. Maybe their hyper-emotion is simply the natural response to the fully-realized goodness, love, and mercy of our God. Regardless, I think one thing is sure: we need more of Omar's Mark Driscoll-style conviction in America.

Anyways, after Omar's teaching, we went back to the Nazarene church to hang out with the locals for a while while we waited for the bus. The bus picked us up and took us back into Salama to visit Omar's home church, where his father is the pastor. We had a great time meeting his family. They are solid. We are hoping to attend one of their services sometime before we leave. 

We got back home around 10:30, and I was worn out from the long day, so I went straight to bed. I'm writing this the following morning (Friday). Today we are going to do some ministry stuff in San Gabriel. Once again, I'm not really sure what it'll look like, but I know it'll be great. I'll tell you all about it as soon as possible.