LEX

the Lord works without our help

sunday morning we went to church at Templo Biblico in Monte Llano. It was one of the best church services I've been to in that country. the church is studying through the book of Matthew, and this sunday just happened to be:

Mat 10:5	These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans,
Mat 10:6	“but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

over the past several years, since MAKARiOS has been involved in the surrounding neighborhood and villages, the people of the church have begun to see the need to reach out to the "lost sheep" of their community. it has been decades since they have collectively done any type of outreach, but the Lord has been stirring in their hearts, showing then that it is His desire, and giving them a desire to join Him in this work. as MAKARiOS and the Austin Stone have been building relationships with this body of believers, they have been seeking guidance from the Lord and from us to learn how to reach their community. and it just so happened that the Sunday we were there was the sunday Amouri (the pastor at Templo Biblico) preached that, to be on mission means you must GO (i didn't count, but he must have said this at least 20 times during his sermon).

so we planned a basketball game - the guys from our team plus some of the pastors from Templo Biblico against the community of Tamarindo (the location of the MAK school). on tuesday afternoon we went with those from the church to invite the community to watch this free basketball game. on wednesday before the game the church rented a truck with loud speakers to drive around and announce the game to the community.

after an hour delay because Monte Llano had no lights, we finally got started. at half time, Ryan gave his testimony, which was translated to Spanish for the crowd. even though our team was creamed about 90something to 50something, we had a great time. there was a great turnout from the community and it was the beginning of this church's efforts to reach out and build relationships with non-believers in their own backyard.

posted by Alexia & Jeffrey @ 8:49 AM