Day 5 - Church in Bolivia

Day 5

Church in Bolivia

Saturday evening and Sunday morning I went to church.  One of my former students, Debbie, is married to a Bolivian man who is pastor of Iglesia Berea in Barrio Telchi.  Debbie was valedictorian the last year I taught in Bolivia.  She went to college only to return shortly thereafter to marry her high school sweetheart.  They now have three children, the oldest is in college, the middle will graduate this school year, and the youngest is a high school sophomore.  Debbie works in the Christian Learning Center where I will be working this year.  You know you are old when you work with former students.

Mural on church wall - Return to your first love, Jesus

They invited me to come on Saturday night because Debbie’s sister, Becky, who I also taught, and her husband and daughter were visiting from Kentucky.  Pastor Percy, Debbie’s husband, always starts any service early.  He is teaching unpunctual Latin Americans to be punctual.  So if a service starts at 7:00, he says it starts at 6:45.  So I was there early and had time to visit.  Another friend/former student who is Bolivian, Carmen, came by to see Becky, since they were classmates.  It was a nice time of renewing acquaintances.

When I went upstairs to attend the already started youth group, there were maybe 75 in the middle of a game.  I’m not sure what the rules were, but they were running across the auditorium and put their noses in a chair that had flour in it.  When they had floured their noses, they ran and tagged another who repeated it. 

Then everybody sat down and a song played as a woman and some kids acted out a scene.  I wasn’t quite sure what was happening but later deduced it was a story about a girl who left home, but was restored to her family.  Likewise, we as Christians might leave the arms of God, but when we return, He accepts us with open arms.

Then they started clearing out all the chairs, so I thought it was over.  Ha-ha – It was not over!  All the men and teenaged boys came to the front and the girls stayed at the back.  I’m still not sure why they do it that way, but it worked.  By that time about 150 young people were there and a few older people.  Two young men led the worship service.  The best way to describe them is full of energy; two energizer bunnies.  They led one of the most active worship services I have ever seen.  One of the men is named Javier, and I don’t know the other’s yet.

It was at least, a 45-minute worship service.  Nobody left, but people kept coming in.  These kids were singing, dancing, jumping, and smiling.  Like it says in Psalm 30:11, “You have turned my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.”  These young people were not in mourning, but rejoicing in a life set free as believers in Christ. 

Becky was standing near me during the worship.  I asked her what she was feeling.  Her response is what I have been trying to say but didn’t have the words to express what I wanted to say.  Simply put, she said, “This feels normal.”

About 35 years ago, I went on my first mission outreach to Mexico City, a barrio called Ciudad Azteca with Pastor David and Doris Godwin.  My first day there I thought I had made a mistake.  By my last day there, I knew I was supposed to be a missionary in Latin America.  And that’s what I did most of the 80s.  Then I came home and nothing ever felt just right.  For the last three years I knew I wanted to return to Latin America and for the last year, Bolivia in particular.  I never knew how to tell everybody why.  So here is my answer.  It feels normal.  The things I am hearing, feeling, seeing, smelling, and tasting seem normal to me.  It feels like home.  I don’t love my home in Texas any less, but this feels like my real home.

So let me tell you what I learned about this youth group.  Several years ago the group was rather small, maybe 25 or 30 on a good youth night.  Someone in the group asked, “How can we get our group to grow.  There are so many lost around us.”  As a group, they committed to praying and fasting for God’s guidance each Thursday.  And bam, a few months later the group started growing.  It is so big now that they split it into four groups, roughly based on age.  They meet at other times during the week, but all together on Saturdays for about two hours.  The groups take turns being in charge of the weekly teaching.  I’ve taken a picture of all the different meetings this church has during the week.  They have the understanding that the more they meet and keep each other following Jesus, they will grow stronger as a family of believers.  And this is the church I will be attending this year!

Busy week

Pastor Percy and Debbie baby dedication of Josias

On Sunday morning, they have two services, though I am still a bit confused about the times.  The later service starts around 10:00.  The first person I am greeted by is the worship leader, Javier.  At the moment, he is the only other person I know by name, other than Debbie’s family.  He talks a mile a minute – energizer bunny!  The entire worship team, maybe 15 people, all have an inexhaustible amount of energy.  I got tired watching them.  Not really.  I felt the joy of around 150 or more people worshipping together. 

Becky’s husband, Daniel, preached and Debbie translated.  It was taken from Psalm 8 and Hebrews 10; a call to persevere in our faith.  Daniel is not a preacher, but an Iraqi War veteran.  He doesn’t know it, but he is a very skilled preacher.  How lucky his church is to have an ordinary member that can preach so well.

As you can see from the picture, I was mentioned in the bulletin. 

I hope your church service went well on Sunday.  If you didn’t make it for whatever reason, I want you to think of an analogy from Daniel’s sermon.  Imagine your team playing in the Super Bowl (he used the Soccer World Cup, but Americans will relate to the Super Bowl better).  The signal has just been given that it is the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, and your team is ahead by 21 points!  Your team cheers, jumps around a lot, does a few high-fives, and then leaves the field and goes to the locker room.  Who then wins the game?  The other team.

Don’t be like that team and give yourself a high-five and quit.  The game is not over until we get to Heaven.  We each still have a job to do. We cannot let the other team score, or we don’t get the celebration.  The celebration is after the game is played. 

“Let us hold unswervingly to hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Let’s go play!