Saturday Post -- 03/04/10

Good evening from Bolivia and a happy Easter to you all. We’re excited to be marking our first Holy Week here and really seeing God’s hand in many aspects, particularly in the church and the Fundación’s morning meditations.

As mentioned last week, I touched on the subject of Holy Week in my sermon last Sunday. OK, ‘touched on’ doesn’t quite do it justice as the whole thing took over an hour. The desperate looks on the faces of the congregation were perhaps an indicator of their thirst for more of the gospel. Or their desperation for the bathroom. In any case, it was an important step to take on the language barrier and, well, not lose! I managed to get my points across clearly enough and I know now for next time that my sermons need not be quite as long. Which, considering how much busier life is going to get in the coming months, is only a good thing.

Excitingly, though – and with no pre-conceived notion on my part – the theme of my sermon seemed to have fit in with a lot that is going on here. Every morning at the Fundación, we have a short meditational time, focusing on a portion of Scripture. Attendance is completely voluntary, but usually by the halfway point, all the morning workers have arrived and sat themselves down. Recently we’ve been working through 1 Corinthians, with people taking it in turns to lead the study. Despite no formal programming, we have somehow managed to end up on 1 Corinthians 15 this week of all weeks, which you may already have realised is Paul’s great explanation of the evidence for, and the importance of, the Resurrection – if anything, the Bible’s ‘last word’ on the subject. The study has provoked fantastic discussions among the workers and, in all honesty, it has been a struggle not to encroach on ‘work time’ given the quality of questions being put forward.

Additionally, our current house-mate, KC, has been leading discipleship groups with the girls who attend her basketball training sessions and, apparently, my sermon answered a lot of burning questions which they had had over the last few weeks.

It’s fair to say, this has been an encouraging week for the church. And nowhere was this encouragement felt more than on Thursday night at the prayer meeting/Bible study. Our church here is like so many around the world in that the prayer meeting, unfortunately, has not been a priority of the members. Over the past couple of months we have been here, an attendance of 10 people would be a genuine cause for celebration – this in a church where you struggle to find a seat on a Sunday morning. Well, on Thursday, Diego began a study in the book of Genesis and no fewer than 25 people attended, the vast majority of them teenagers. The study was stimulating and, again, the questions being put forward for discussion were meaty! We are so thankful for this development and hope you’ll pray that God continues to work in this ministry.

On Sunday morning, unhindered by the elections, we will join with the rest of the worldwide church and mark Easter Sunday. Voting is compulsory here – in itself, that’s nothing overly unusual. But so keen are the government to ensure that nobody slips through the net that all modes of motorised transportation are banned for the entire 24 hours! So we are not anticipating huge numbers, but in our own small way we will mark that triumphant Easter morning, which ensured that one day, there will be a gathering like no other in Heaven – and, mercifully, no elections are planned for that day!

Prayer
• For a continued desire among the church members to meet together for prayer/Bible study.
• For the message of Easter to ring loud and clear amidst the electoral chaos.

Praise
• For the huge encouragement of Thursday evening’s meeting.
• For the perfect timing of the Lord in various aspects of the ministry.

Finally, please be sure to check out our quarterly newsletter, which should be in your email inbox -- feel free to share it with anyone who may be interested.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda