Wednesday Brian, Rachel, and I
went to a dear friend of mines (Irma) school to help her teach an English
class. I was expecting an elementary class because I knew that she worked at an
elementary school however, I found myself standing at the front of a class room
teaching thirty 20-48 year olds English. Brian and Rachel, who had never taught
an English class before, were obviously hesitant, a little awkward, and clearly
out of their comfort zone. However, in the end it turned out to be really fun
and a really big encouragement for all of us. At the end of the class Irma
asked her students if they wanted to say anything to us. One of the older men
in the classroom stood up and said, “Thank you for helping my people”. You
could see in his eyes how sincere he was and it was such an affirmation to me.
I am here in Guatemala and I am doing good, even when I feel like I am not
doing enough or that I could be doing so much more. God brought me to that
school to tell me just what I needed to hear and to leave encouraged and
praising God for using me.
Bus ride up to San Nicolas with the lovely Adela.
Hector and I talking on our cucumber phones=)
Thursday was a long day of outreach. Yesterday we
went to San Nicolas for an outreach with OR4. OR4 is an organization that a
group of Achi men started 8 years ago. They created this organization to reach
out to the young people in San Miguel and in neighboring villages. We arrived
at San Nicolas late in the afternoon; we soon split up into three smaller
groups and walked around the village, door to door, inviting people to come to
our event and prayed for any specific needs they had. Many people asked for
prayer for illnesses, family problems, and spiritual growth. One girl even
asked for help accepting Christ into her heart. Her mother-in-law gave us all
cucumbers as a “thank you”. It was a
sweet time to lay hands on the Achi people as we continue to build
relationships with them. At 6:45 we started a big fogota (bonfire) out in the
middle of a soccer field where Rachel gave her testimony, we had a time of
worship, and a local pastor Omar gave a sermon. I was very encouraged my Omar’s
teaching. (Insert small rabbit trail/background info) A lot of the Achi churches
have many of these 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 im just being insensitive and judgemental), but I
think I see it for what it really is and it has become more evident to me with
each passing year that I come down to Guatemala. It is most obvious in their
prayers. It seems that many of the Christians here force themselves to become
overly emotional, to the point where they are weeping, and just repeating the
same things (like “God you are big and great”) over and over to try to prolong
their prayers. Maybe if it was an unusual thing, it would be more believeable,
it happens almost every single time they pray, as if they were taught that this
is just the way you pray. In a large group setting, this is compounded as they
try to “out-spiritualize” each other. Does this sound familiar? Yes, 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. He told the people that many time people
do “spiritual shows” as to show how spiritual they are however, they are not
pointing to their relationship with Chirst, but rather, they are just pointing
to a religion. 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.
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