Colombian Christian Mission

Yesterday I visited the Paraiso (Paradise in English) church in a poor section of Bogotá. This church has been a real inspiration all and is a joy to visit. The church always amazes me as it just grows and grows even with significant obstacles. One problem for them has been the poverty of the believers which means they have not been able to purchase a lot or a building for the church. And so lacking a building, they must rent garages and places like that to meet.

That engenders a significant expense and inherent instability for the church. They never know when the landlord will raise the rent or demand they move out of his property. Added to this, is the obvious inconvenience of trying to cram a hundred people into a single car garage for a church service. We have often dreamed of helping them yet the collapsing value of the dollar and our own very tight budget has made it impossible to provide the needed funds to buy a lot or a building for them.

The preacher at this church is a humble man with a deep faith and an iron clad commitment to the Lord and His church. He works in construction to support himself and his family but spends a majority of his time in evangelism and church work. He and his family make significant sacrifices in order to preach the Gospel. He never asks for anything other than fellowship and teaching as he works to build the Lord’s church in this poverty belt on the outskirts of Bogotá. He is very appreciative of any effort to help, even when it is nothing more than a once a month visit.

Yesterday, when I went to visit him and the church there, he said he had something he wanted to show me. We walked two blocks up from where the church was currently renting a garage. As we gazed at en empty lot with foundations, columns, and walls that reached about three of four feet into the air, he beamed as he asked me what I thought. “A very nice lot” I said, “Do you want to buy this for the church.” He broke out into a huge smile as he answered back, “I already did.” I was shocked. He and his family live very modestly and his income is limited. “How did you manage that?” I asked as I knew how poor he is. He looked back at me and said calmly, “I sold my house and moved in with relatives so as to be able to secure this lot for the church,” referring to a tiny home he owned and where he had lived with his family. I was shocked at the audacity of his faith and commitment.

As I pondered the faith of this humble man who would sacrifice even his own home in order to provide for the church of our Lord. My thoughts drifted to this incredible display of commitment and confidence demonstrated by someone with such deep faith and willing sacrifice. When this lot had suddenly become available do to a death in the family of the owner, the preacher knew he had to act quickly as suitable lots in this area are rapidly disappearing. I was absolutely amazed by his level of commitment to the Lord and his willingness to give up everything for the good of the church.

It made me conscious of my own limited sacrifices for the Kingdom of God and the feeble confidence we often have in the promises of our Lord. We would all do well to learn from a simple Colombian preacher whose commitment to and confidence in the Lord is so great, that an open door of opportunity knows no obstacle when it presents a significant benefit to the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. I went to the Paraiso to be a blessing to them. I came home blessed and with a renewed commitment to do my very best to preach and teach here in Colombia for the furthering of the Lord’s kingdom.

One of the great success stories here in Colombia has been a program to encourage the guerrilla fighters to desert and rejoin society. For the most part these are individuals who have spent most of their lives as militants within the guerrilla ranks, occupied with killing and kidnapping. A few years back, the government began a program where any guerrilla fighter who deserted and turned himself or herself in would be granted amnesty and aided in rejoining society.

When a fighter accepts this offer, he or she is first debriefed as the army attempts to learn as much as is possible about the guerrilla unit to which the fighter belonged. Then the government begins the process of aiding them to adapt by housing them in rented properties and providing them with room, board, and a stipend for a period of about six months while they try to train them for a job and help them adjust to a normal life in a modern city. At the end of this period, they return to their families or simply begin working and attempting to live on their own. This is not an easy task since most were forcibly recruited as very young teenagers and so most have known nothing but the brutality of war all of their lives.

In most cases, the effort by the government at the rehabilitation of the guerrilla fighters is successful. Sometimes it is not. But it takes an effort not only by the individual, but by society as a whole. Society must forgive them and accept them in order to facilitate this reintegration. As a Christian church, we are doing our part as well. One of the ladies in the church here is a social worker. Her job right now is working with a couple groups of these former guerrilla fighters. She is allowed to witness to them and invite them to church; which she does. Nearly every week, she has a group of ten or fifteen who come to church with her. We are glad to have them and help in this effort to improve things here in Colombia.

The only thing about this is that when things do not work out, some of the guerrillas return to their previous life. Since they have never held a job or dealt with the pressures of earning a living and paying bills, it is overwhelming for some of them. So with the opportunities comes a certain concern as well. The guerrilla movement has been very anti-American and has sustained itself through kidnapping and extortion. The other elders at the church warned me not to share too much information with them, just in case. They suggested that I not give out my phone number or address to any of them. They said that if one should ask me for such information, it would be better to simply inform them that the other elders will deal with any problems or concerns that they might have and then direct them to speak with one of them.

While I normally do not concern myself too much with the risks of working here, as I feel my life is in the Lord’s hands. Given the circumstances, this is one case where I have taken the advice of the Colombian church leaders. I work with the deaf church members and the other people, but I leave the work with the former guerrillas to the Colombian leaders, as they do not face the same risk of kidnapping that I as a foreigner do. I greet the “reinserted ones” and speak with them, but I leave the actual work of evangelizing and teaching them to the different Colombian brothers and sisters who have taken on this ministry. That is one of the great advantages of working with a maturing church, there are many people involved in ministry and each person can work where his or her skill sets are best used and where risk in minimized.

This past Sunday was typical in many ways. I was up early and got ready then headed out to church. Normally I attend and preach at two or three churches nearly every Sunday. So this past Sunday I headed out to the Normandia church where I was scheduled to preach. As always, church services here are great and I really enjoy my time at the services. Sunday is a day I look forward too all week long.

While there, I took a bit of time to visit the new deaf church that we planted there and that functions parallel with the Normandia church. Things are going well with them and we are now ready to begin our major push for evangelism and outreach. There were ten deaf individuals present and a couple of bilingual persons there as well. They meet with the hearing church through the communion service then split off and the rest of the time is a purely deaf church and the entire service is conducted in sign language. This church was started in conjunction with Dewayne Liebrandt and Deaf Missions International. We are grateful to brother Dewayne, as without him this would have been impossible.

Here in Colombia, we start churches with small groups and get them organized. Once the organizational step has passed, we then begin a major push for outreach and evangelism. We do it this way as there are normally some “teething pains” in that initial set up period and those difficulties are much easier to deal with when the church is small. In keeping with that plan, two months ago, we launched a new church plant on the southwestern edge of Bogotá. We began with some families from that area of Bogotá and a few of our musicians from other churches that have been helping with the music. That area of town is called Soacha, and is actually a small town that has been absorbed by Bogotá as the city has grown.

So after the morning service in Normandia and a meeting with the deaf ministry people, I loaded up the car and headed down to Soacha (pronounced Sew-Acha)for the church service there. I was scheduled to preach for the first time at that new church. We had recently finished the organizational stage and were now in the early part of our outreach and evangelism efforts there. This is an extremely poor section of down and the streets are mostly mud and ruts. It is an area that requires a four wheel drive vehicle to get into. I arrived about an half hour before the service was to begin in order to be there to chat with the leaders and greet all of the new Christians as they arrive.

The church meets in an empty lot we have there, as there is no money for a building and the church is too small and poor and cannot yet consider putting up a building. But then buildings are not needed for a church plant. We pray for good weather but there is a very small lean-to that we can crowd into in case it does rain. The biggest problem is there is no restroom available there yet either and with three hour services and more than fifty people, including people of all ages, the lack of a restroom is a high priority, as soon as we are able to afford to put on in.

This past Sunday, there were forty two people present when the service began. Several more wandered in during the service, filling up the fifty chairs we had set up and leaving many people standing. It was a beautiful service in the open air and under the afternoon sky. We had our song service and then communion. After that, I preached out of the book of Romans. I was interrupted several times by applause as the new Christians are exuberant about their faith and excited by hearing the Gospel preached. New churches are always exciting and I am thrilled by the chance to be a part of so many new church plants.

After the service was over, as it common here in Colombia, the people stayed around to chat and enjoy the fellowship for a long time after the service was over. After perhaps an hour or so, the people slowly began to take their leave and head back to their homes. It was more than two hours until the final departures and we were able to head back to our houses and apartments. I took a load back to the central part of town, dropping different people off at bus stops or at their homes. I got back to our apartment here about 8:30 that evening. It had been a long day and I was tired. But I was also thrilled by seeing what God is doing here in Colombia.

In a missionary ministry, some things are really fun. There are jobs that I enjoy very much, such as visiting different churches and watching them grow and progress. It is a time to revel in close relationships with the local Christians and church leaders, built up over the years of working together. It is exciting to teach eager students the great truths revealed in God’s word; to see them light up with understanding as the remnants of cultural Christianity give way to the shining light of simply and pure New Testament Christianity.

It is really fun working with the students at our Christian Day School in Villavicencio as well. The kids squeal with delight when they see me arrive. The younger ones all run up and give me a hug and a kiss while the older ones wait patiently in line to shake my hand or simply chat for a minute or two. There is never enough time to chat with every student who wishes to talk with me as bells ring and classes begin. Yes, there are some aspects of missionary ministry that are pure delight.

But as with any job, there are elements which are quite pleasant and yet there are other aspects of the work that are tedious, even boring. Certainly the international travel with entire days spent on airplanes and in airports is very tiring and often frustrating. The long lines at the security check point and having to remove shoes, empty pockets, and open bags, only to try to hurriedly reclaim everything and repack bags without holding up the line is quite frustrating. That is especially true because the futility of most of that is blatantly obvious. After all, how many eighty year old white haired grannies are going to represent any kind of danger to a flight? Yet in political correctness, everyone must be searched and checked every time they fly.

Yet as with any job, you do not do simply what is enjoyable but you tackle jobs based on what they accomplish and their relevance to the final goal being sought. Some jobs may be tedious but are very important to the final goals being sought. Translation is one such job. Translation work is very tedious. It requires long hours at a keyboard as I struggle with the meaning a phrase or sentence has in English and then look for a dynamic equivalent in Spanish. Words can carry many meanings and the meaning of the author must be sought and then conveyed accurately into the target language. So while translation is a very time consuming and tedious work, it is also a work that is of critical importance. If there is not good literature available, the job of teaching and training new Christians and their leaders is very difficult.

While I could teach whatever I personally know to a limited number of new Christians and the leaders we are developing, it is the literature that enables us to multiply that ministry a hundred times over. Books are able to travel anywhere and teach a limitless number of people. Books can continue to teach when the original teacher has long since disappeared from the scene. So here in Colombia, we have always dedicated a certain portion of our time and efforts to developing good teaching material. On this trip down, I have limited my other activities in order to spend a significant portion of my time on a major translation project.

We are attempting to translate Jack Cottrell’s book, Faith Once for All into the Spanish language. This encyclopedic work on Christian doctrine will be invaluable for the work once finished, but the job of translating it is massive. So on this trip down; I will spend a lot of time hunched over a keyboard, disciplining myself to do an important job even though it is tedious task. It is not as much fun, but the final work will continue to teach and preach long after I an no longer able to be actively involved in those ministries and even after I have been called home and gone on to my reward in heaven.

For the past seven weeks I have been in the States to spend some time with my family and get some much needed work done around the house up there. It was really fun to have some “grandpa time” and enjoy the grandchildren as much as I could. I also spoke at three churches and then did a week of VBS. During all that time I needed a few weeks to recover from a broken collar bone, which certainly set me back a bit.

Then this past Wednesday I returned to Colombia in order to get back to work and be ready for the second semester of this term in the Bible college and graduate school. As always, the first couple of days are time to recover from the trip and get the apartment set back up for living. I buy supplies and groceries as well as clean and organize things. But I try to keep that time to a minimum in order to make the best use of my time here.

Then on my first Sunday back and just three days after returning to Colombia, I was scheduled to preach at the Suba church for a special friend’s day. They have two services so I need to be there quite early. The service went well with somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 people present for the two services. It was good to be back and share with my good friends and brothers there.

Afterwards they had a lunch for every one of that consisted of a typical Colombian dish called frijoles Antioqueños, which is a bean dish with sausage and shredded beef. I spent some time visiting and sharing with the brethren there then about two o’clock I need to head back to Normandia for a meeting there. That meeting lasted till a bit after four o’clock.

I returned to the apartment in late afternoon and fixed my supper. It had been a very long day and I was exhausted. It normally takes me a week or so to become fully adjusted to the very high altitude of Bogotá, so I tire easily in the first few days back in the country. So for the rest of the evening I simply watched the news and rested. I turned in early to try and get rested up and ready for the week ahead.

This week I will begin a full schedule of meetings and teaching even though I am still recovering from the trip and getting adjusted to the altitude. There is so much to be done there is simply no time to waste. After all, Paul admonishes us to “make the most of your time, because the days are evil.” And so we do our best to make the very best use of the time the Good Lord gives us to work on this earth and here in Colombia.