More about Guatemala

I had a lot of awesome experiences when we were in Guatemala a couple weeks ago. We got to feed the hungry and love the needy. We saw many people give their hearts tot he Lord and many healed. We were a large team working as one. It was really a great time as many mission trips are.

The biggest thing that impressed me this time, I think, was that where there is unity in the church ( I mean the churches in the areas we ministered) there is big fruit. We have been on trips where there was no unity in the church, and have seen people come to Jesus, but not in the way where the church is working toward the common goal. When the church is on the same page, there are no personal agendas or anything to hinder the Lord from doing its work.

Why do I say this? If you follow anything about world religions, you will know there are really only two major Muslim threads, where there are hundreds of Christian threads. Islam is growing faster than Christianity in most areas. While we argue over things like speaking in tongues, healing, the right way to baptise, disciplining children, and the like, the Islamic church is mobilizing. This can also be said about the Jehova's Witnesses. While preparing for a bike ride, my boys and I were approached by a JW.

I was sitting there thinking to myself, "I just got off the high point of my mission trip, and am shamed by a false religion in my own backyard." This may be a competitive male attitude, and I am not really too distraught over it as I work as hard as I can in my local church vineyard, but it did get me thinking. There may be things that we can disagree on in the body, but those things really divide us more than necessary. It is almost as if the church here is the most offended group in the world. Instead of walking in victory, we walk in rejection and despair. We worry for the catholics, and wish the baptists would get filed with the spirit. We bicker with eachother and build new churches out of spite for our old leaders who were "wrong."

I was also reminded of these things at a recent meeting where I was asked to share with some other HS parents about the trip. There were people upset about us working there. "Did you just lead them to the Lord and no follow up?" "I don't think healings are for today." "Don't you think you should be doing more here?" "Don't you think you are doing your family a disservice?" These were some of the things asked of me as I shared. There was a great debate that followed and I just was amazed.

As I sit and type, I know two things:
1. I am going to offend someone.
2. I could go on for hours and nail more truth to the wall.

Neither one of these things is my intent. I just wanted to ponder these things aloud. It just depressed me that false religions take the Great Commandment more seriously than the Bride of Christ does. It also depresses me that there are so many lost and dying while we debate symantics. As a father, I want to teach my kids to be outward. I want to show them that there is a world out there that needs Jesus and they are part of getting Him out.