Plurality of Scripture

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone (Genesis 2:18)

Let's take this into the context of the born again Christian who has been breathed upon by God and now lives as a new creation:
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the Christian should be alone

We were created for a shared existence.

We share our existence with God. He permits this.

We share our existence with humans. He designed this.

Why people DON’T get together:
Millions of reasons: unforgiveness, past hurts, selfishness, laziness, low self esteem, prejudice, pride, self pity, poor influences, bad company, corrupted morals.

C.S. Lewis love quote:
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

Why people DO get together:
One reason: love

The primary purpose of God is his family.

1. Adam - created to share his existence with Eve

2. Noah - saved to share his existence with his family

3. Abraham - blessed to share his existence with his son

4. Israel - the Old Testament written about the shared existence of a group of people

5. Jesus - God incarnate to share existence as a human, called the Son of God

6. Early church - the New Testament addresses the shared existence of a group of people

7. Revelations – addressed the actions of the shared existence of the churches

It has not been until recent years that “personal savior” has worked its way into our vocabulary. God sees us as a whole, as a generation, as generations.

How would you evaluate your spiritual condition?
Us = standards, checklist, example: club membership
God = relationship, intimacy, example: marriage relationship

When you think about the condition of your spirit what do you evaluate?

Usually it is the observance or practices or disciplines that we use to evaluate ourselves.

I Challenge you to evaluate your spiritual condition based on two things:

Love the Lord you God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength

Love your neighbor as yourself

Comparison: When you evaluate the condition of your marriage you don’t think first in the practices that you maintain. You consider the strength of the bond you have with your spouse. The practices are important – but not the main thing.

Have you ever noticed that much of the bible is written in plural?

We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)

We are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37)

Our Father which art in Heaven (Matthew 6:9)

You are chosen generation, a holy nation, (1 Peter 2:9)

In Him we live and move a have our being (Acts 17:28)

Lists that require interaction with other people:

Hebrews 11:39 - 40 “Faith heroes”

Galatians 5:22 - 23 “Fruit of the Spirit”

1 Corinthians 12 “Purpose of the gifts of the Spirit”

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love check list”

2 Peter 1:4-8 “Great and precious promises for us”

Romans 12 “Christian living with a renewed mind”

It is vital that we are purposefully sharing our existence with other believers in the context of a body in a church.

May Day

Today in Bolivia we are observing Labor Day. This term seems to be an oxymoron seeing as it is observed by everyone taking the day off from work (except for the market workers, they are so industrious). Yet we are glad to give our team a day off. They work very hard and we are appreciative of them. Of course, my husband, the team leader, is glad to have the office all to him self to work. I must commend him, though, for sleeping in until 7:30 today. This is something he hasn’t done in a long while. I was actually up before him which is a rare occurrence indeed.

My day will include work as well. Aside from the usual laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, baby care, and food sanitization of groceries bought right before closing time at the store last night I have some fun things going on. An extra home school class taught by one of our friends: Spanish. As well as art this afternoon with our missionary / neighbor / church member / fellow home school family. After art the kids have a birthday party to go to at the bowling alley. Then we have church tonight. I enjoyed teaching while DaRonn (my husband the pastor) was gone, but I am so glad that he is back to share this evening.

The art project for today is shrinky-dinks. I tossed around the idea of making May baskets. I have some great childhood memories of May Day sneaking up to the neighbors’ houses, ringing the door bell and then running away to hide behind a bush to watch them discover their surprise treat. But, since that is not a tradition here and I have been saving styrofoam trays for weeks the anticipation has got the better of me. Here are the instructions for the project on line if you are interested: http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/make_your_own_shrinky_dinks

What childhood memories does this season invoke for you?

It’s Not Nothing

“Even the ones that know about God are doing it,” my surprised daughter exclaims.

“Maybe they are not doing it; maybe they are just watching,” hoping beyond all hope the older one attempts to console.

Standing at the window my children observed the rituals being played out below. Sights of dancing, costumes and heavy drinking filled their eyes. Loud music pumped through huge speakers thudded in our chests and rattled the glass.

Wait for it, wait for it. Dread of all dreads the inevitable question sits in the air after the child looks over her shoulder with a worried look on her face and asks, “Is it bad mom?”

Too angry, ashamed and annoyed by these customs to respond I didn’t answer.

The fact that they are differentiating between the choices of their friends to come to church one Sunday and then participate in the ritualistic observance of Carnaval the same week shows me their value system is being shaped. My kids seeing pagan practices first hand does not bother me. Maybe it should; but I am pretty sure that the inundation with the things of God that we provide sets a very clear standard before them of what we believe.

Culture is the physical expression of the values of a people group. Just as money does not have good or bad qualities culture cannot be classified as a good or bad thing. It is a tool that society employs. The uses of tools like money, a hammer, the internet and culture can and are brought into question as to the positive or negative effects that they have on people.

So we can look at the practice of throwing water balloons at anyone and everyone. Is it bad? We have to consider the effects. Then we can look at the two days of continual dancing and drinking. The effects that this has on people should be considered. Then we look at La K’oa (or Q’owa). This is the burning of trinkets made of paper and sugar along with certain plants and dried animal fetuses every first Friday and especially during the festivals of Carnaval said to bring the blessing of the Pachamama. What effects does this practice bring to the people of Bolivia?

Marginal Christians attempt a condescending explanation of the importance of keeping the traditions of the ancestors alive. Why keep alive something that is killing the soul of the nation? That is the ironic fatality of the issue though. The people feel alive and connected to something greater than themselves when they observe the traditions. The devil subtly twists what was intended for good and disguises the captivity as freedom and independence.

Abolition of all carnavalistic observances may not be a realistic goal. A close look at the Kingdom of God shows us that we don’t work from the outside in; rather significant and lasting changes come from the inside out. My goal is to work with people close to me. This begins with guarding my own heart. Then I have my own children and the children of the orphanage. After that the families of the church have been placed before me. Beyond that our influence extends through media.

Shaping the culture of their hearts is where I must focus my energy.

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:14-16 (NLT)

Run, Mama, Run

Ringtones are out of my league; but I do know how to assign different ring sounds to individuals on my contacts list from the options in my cell phone. I have one general ring sound for the whole world – except one person: my husband. His ring sound is called bullfighter – it’s that cheesy music that you hear whenever you see some commercial of someone running. Well, I was in my room and the phone was in the dining room. Papa’s ring sounded for all to hear. I rushed out to the dining room and my kids saw me coming. My youngest daughter yells out to me as I whiz by, “Run, Mama, Run!” It sounded just like the famous Forest Gump phrase. It was so funny!

Things I am lovin’ today:
- A well made turkey cold cut sandwich purchased for lunch
- Bugles and Mineragua – a great combo
- Google Reader – I just switched all my subs – it is great
- Lists and charts
- Pilates
- A clean desk top even after a week
- Our 2 cute guinea pigs
- The fact that I remembered how to spell guinea pig
- On line Scrabble
- The book of First John
- Driving
- Hooded sweatshirts with pockets for these drippy days

Books I am reading at this point in time:
- “Mere Christianity” by: C.S. Lewis
- “The Lie that Tells a Truth” by: John Dufresne
- “Sacred Parenting” by: Gary Thomas

Projects I am working on right now:
- A surprise party
- Organizing for this year of home schooling – first week of February we start
- Church leadership get together on Saturday

Did I mention that I like lists and charts?

2007 Christ Nation Church Toy Give-Away

A father came through the door. His son was on his weary shoulders. I am sure that his son was not the only burden he carried this overcast morning. The shirt on his back was so worn down in places that his sunburned brown skin showed through. His dark head bent down as he was walking past me.

“Feliz Navidad,” I said as I placed my hand on his shoulder. As he raised his head I made sure to make eye contact with him and his child. An identical broad smile broke out on the faces of both. The boy was clutching the present he had received.

This morning we woke to the rich sound of rain on the window panes. Though the rain lulled me and said I could say in bed a few more minutes the excitement pulsing through me prevailed. I whispered an honest yet slightly desperate prayer, “God, the rain is fine for now; but when we start let there be sun.” The cloud cover and drips gradually dissipated as we went about with the final preparations.

Volunteers began showing up asking how they could help. Some, deemed bus captains, climbed on empty busses and were scattered through the city to fill them. Others took posts in the main sanctuary wrapping up the toys. Others then separated them into huge piles; one for the girls one for the boys.

The neighborhood buzzed with anticipation as the street in front of our church building began to fill with children. They had come because of a flyer, a radio announcement or a personal invitation. The busses began to arrive from the orphanages, prisons and needy neighbor hoods brimming over with children of all ages.

And the sun came out! The program started with fun songs about Jesus. The animated voice of our church’s children leader pumped out over the speakers telling the children about Jesus. Another song was about to start so she invited a few children up on the make shift stage, the flat back of a large truck, to dance with her and do the simple motions.

Then came the thing everyone had been waiting for: the toy give-away. In all 2,207 toys were given to the children of Cochabamba, Bolivia today. Our church, Christ Nation Church, of about 200 members collected some 2,700 toys to give away. We have worked together for the last 7 weeks to be sure we had enough toys. And this was without corporate sponsors; just the members giving of themselves to bless this city. The left over toys will be used for other events and to stock our prize bin in children’s church.

Two years ago we launched this great annual event and gathered together 400 kids and gave them each a toy for Christmas. Last year we raised the bar and challenged the congregation to gather together 1,000. They did it! This year we told them that we were going to bless 2,500 kids with toys. The goal was met and exceeded.

We have coupled this toy give-away with a faith project for the church. These toys were sown as a seed towards having 300 people attending church on a weekly basis in 2008. (Personally, I think that we will exceed this goal too as we work together.) This number will put us in a strategic position for beginning the process of buying property and building. Pastor DaRonn, my husband, is so good about challenging us to grow and reach out to people with the love of Jesus. He says, “If the church is doing what it should be doing the world will take notice.” I wonder what he will tell us is our goal for toy collection in 2008. Whatever it is I know that with God we will reach it.

Here are some pictures from this morning:

Some of the toys collected for the boys.

Some of the toys collected for the girls.

This member of our church is 91 years old. She is helping prepare the toys.

Our children's leader on a truck on the street in front of our church, Christ Nation Church.

Some of the 2,207 children that received a toy for Christmas.

DaRonn and I handing out toys along with the other 20 some volunteers.

Merry Christmas!!!

Video Link

During his last trip to the States my husband DaRonn (I love you baby!) was asked to do an interview at our home sending church Word of Life Church in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Our connection to this church is profound and powerful. We share an anniversary. The first day of Word of Life was November first, 26 years ago. Per the previous post you know that the same date marked our 6th year on the field. The founding and head pastors, Brian and Peri Zahnd are dear, dear people. They have a passion for Jesus and are making a huge impact not only in the town of St. Joe, but around the world.

Click here to see the video they did with DaRonn.

You can browse around on the Word of Life site, it’s pretty cool.

Chains or Safety Restraints

Here is a little glimpse at part of my message for this coming Sunday morning while DaRonn is in St. Joseph Missouri for a conference at one of the most wonderful churches in the world: Word of Life Church.

Romans 6:18 (NIV) You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.




(White water rafting on the Zambezi River 1996. I am the one giving the thumbs up. Amy is the one on the far left with the blue helmet. This is a picture of a picture, so the quality is a bit low.)

We were completely free to throw ourselves into the rapids. We would have died – eventually – if we had done so. The restraints (helmet, life vest, raft, paddles, and guide) were there so that we could freely enjoy the ride.

Trade in your concept of “chains” for the concept of “safety restraints”. So that when you hear God tell you to do something it is not received as if God was trying to chain you down. Rather view it as if God was trying to put safety restraints on you to help you enjoy the ride of life.

Basement Beginnings - 2

Part 2 – Saint Joseph, Missouri
(Storage room)

Obstacles are often open doors of opportunity. Anticipate change and the hardships help you. All may seem dark and difficult in the moment, but if you will just continue to put one foot in front of the other on the other side you will be able to see what was impossible to see from your previous perspective. As you give a slight glance back at the door you just walked through you will be grateful.

One car meant that I had to go pick him up. The drive to the mall where he was part of the management team at a sports shoe store was a prayer filled few minutes. There had been some shifting around in upper management. When all was said and done all of the mid level managers were asked to leave. He was standing on the curb with a box of personal belongings in his hands. His eyes were puffy. He climbed silently into the car. My mouth, which had been running a mile a minute in prayer on the way over, was now quiet. I was relieved.

This all took place at the end of summer of ‘98. We sat down on the couch and looked at each other. We were both thinking the same thing. Not two weeks passed and we had moved down to Saint Joseph, Missouri. Most of his credits transferred to Missouri Western. We knew that being able to continue with school was the only condition. DaRonn felt that God had told him that he needed to get his degree before he went to the mission field. He prayed that we would be 10 years advanced as missionaries when we landed if we took the time to go through school. So what’s in Saint Joseph?

Backtracking a few months; before our baby was born in March 1998 we had been hunting for a church there in Omaha. Easter was coming and we had been invited by a friend (who was a newly hired associate pastor) to come and attend Word of Life Church. He had been raving about how wonderful the people were, especially the pastors. We made the 2 hour drive down with some other members of my family. We knew the hunt was over. For 5 months (March to August) we made the commute once a week to church. So it was only logical to us that when he had no more obligations to his job that we would make the move down.

On the map this move took us about an inch closer to Bolivia. I was happy that we were headed in the right direction. Not just the right direction physically; but I felt like this was a decision we made based wholly on our priority of preparing for the mission field. God had shut a door and another had opened before us.

We left the basement stage and were now in the storage room stage. Most of our ministry desires were fulfilled through volunteer positions with church. It was in this city that we learned how to trust God for, well, for everything really. It seemed like every single message at church during our two years living there was about faith. We learned to live by faith. We used our faith to kill the bugs in our apartment, to put gas in our car, for milk and diapers for our baby, to put food on our table, to pay the hospital bills for the birth of our second child, and for work for DaRonn. He worked mostly temp jobs, but there was one job that makes us smile every time we think about it.

The whole time we were there things were tight. One day we got a call from a business owner at church that knew a little about our situation. He alluded to a job. Wow, we were so excited! DaRonn went to his office. The man explained how the business worked. They sold fancy vacuum cleaners and took old trade-ins to offset the cost for clients. So he told DaRonn that he had about 50 old trade-in vacuums that he wanted to give to us. What?! He said that we could sell the vacuums; all we had to do was haul them. The old Century Apartments complex where we lived had storage rooms for each of the tenants. We filled that room with vacuums and vacuum parts. There were tubes and hoses hanging from the ceiling and canisters and uprights piled on the floor. Every time I tripped and stumbled over the vacuums to pull the string that hung by the light bulb in that room I had to laugh!

From borrowed basement beginnings to scraping by with a stuffed storage room, our next stop: a garage in a state where the wind goes sweeping down the plain.

Moving Parts

My baby boy marvels me. The other day as he sat in his stroller watching his Papa eat a hot hog he began to flap his arms up and down. Seeing that this amused his parents he continued with a huge smile on his face. Also, when he gets his pants changed his new trick is to pull on his toes and rock from side to side. Lately he has been waking himself up and flipping over in bed from tummy to back. He is not an overly rambunctious child, but when he is awake he is making some part of his body move. If I was in movement as much as he is those extra baby pounds would have melted away long ago.

So I was thinking about my baby’s pursuit of discovery and a thought popped into my head. I thought about the body of Christ, which is comprised of the members of His church as stated in Ephesians. Our natural human body wants to move. The church body should also naturally want to be in movement. Just like my new baby wants to move and learn, a new Christian should also want to become an active member of the body of Christ by trying and learning new things.

Recently a relatively new Christian, an elderly man, in our church body sought my advice. Some well meaning members of his family had told him that he was taking this whole “Christian thing” too fast. They told him to slow down and not be so extreme. He asked me if that was correct. I quickly assured him that volunteering as an usher, attending bible school and being at church whenever the doors were open was not causing damage to his spiritual well being. Quite the contrary, all the activity was aiding and solidifying his growth.

Church is much, much, much more than just an entertaining show or a social club. Being part of a church means being part of a body. Bodies naturally want to move and grow. What are you doing as a response to this natural process? Don’t wait until you have it all figured out; you can learn along the way from members that have been exercised a bit more. Don’t wait until someone asks you to help; jump in there and become active. It is natural that you be a vital moving part of the body of Christ.

“Un poco de todo”

Here in Bolivia when you say, “Un poco de todo” it means: a little bit of everything, usually in reference to a friendly chat with someone. This blog entry has a little bit of everything. I have often thought of doing a whole entry in Spanish to see what kind of response I would get; maybe sometime, not today.

(First topic)
Home school

Home schooling your children is a very foreign concept here. It is met with varied responses, as is surely the case in any country. I have to be wise when answering inquiries about the nature of the way we are educating our children. I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit; that He guides me in both pleasant and uncomfortable encounters. The funniest argument that I have heard here in Bolivia (pro-public education) is that the principal reason I should put my kids in a normal school is so that they can learn the traditional dances of the country. That was the best he could do! I chuckled. Some people are indifferent, others rude, others confused, others critical, others try to act like they understand, others think it is a great thing. As for me, the reason I do it is because I have peace that it is what I am supposed to be doing right now.

(New topic)
Relevant Jesus

We were out to dinner with a few couples from church. Out of the blue the discussion abruptly went to the new people who were coming to church. The church building is located next to a market. Usually lower class people work in the market. So the parents who work Sunday morning send their kids to Sunday school at our church. It was fine, actually fabulous, to us. But there were some people concerned about the influence that “those” kids were having on their own. The parents we were dining with were concerned about hygiene, language and social standards. First I expressed to them that it is the parent’s responsibility to train their child for brushes with influences from the world. Those coming not only from the people at church but also at school, on the TV and in the movies they watch and finally with family and friends. Then I tried a different approach. I explained some of the habits that Jesus had in His everyday life. He spent considerable amounts of time with what some might describe as the dregs of society. Yet did not close him self off with “those” kind of people, rather also spent time with dignitaries. Actually, He had a very well rounded social life, if you might call it that. The husband then looked for a rebuttal. Here is what he came up with, “But times are different now than the time when Jesus was here on earth.” Ah, now I see where we are at! The relevancy issue. To this man Jesus is a historical figure, a story book character, if you will. He does not believe that Jesus has a lick of relevancy in our culture and age. The rest of the group got bored and the subject changed. All the couples who were there at the dinner are still coming to church. I appreciate it when people are honest about where they are at and feel close enough to us to be candid. It helps us to know where some of the others may be at. I think that people haven’t changed as much as this man thinks. I believe, actually I know, that Jesus has relevancy to every person in every time. I just think that there has been a false presentation of the true person of Jesus thus some people have felt inclined to relegate Him to just another good guy in the history books. May there be an awakening and a shaking to drive us far from that!

(Another new topic)
Shopping
In our house I do the market shopping and my husband does the supermarket shopping. It works well for us. My man is a super shopper. I am more of the go-get-it-and-leave-as--fast-as-you-can kind of gal. But yesterday my husband traveled to Chile; he will be back tomorrow. So some things were running out at the house and I had to get out there and brave those long aisles and push that big clunky cart around and get what I could. After about a half an hour of looking at price tags and labels my mind starts to get all muddled, I get very bored and a bit overwhelmed. I usually stop at about the frozen foods section considering the option of abandoning the cart and making a break for the door never to come back again. As I am frozen in the frozen foods section, deep from within me comes this voice, “You can do it! Just go to the check out.” So I put one foot in front of the other and make a fuzzy push to the cashier. Finally I am through with the ordeal. Yeah Angie! So later on tonight I get on the webcam with my husband who is in Santiago. I proudly tell him that I went shopping, and that I spent almost $50. He laughs! (I knew he would, it is the joke here at the Washington house when I do the shopping.) He said, “Good that will last us for about 2 days!” Ha! At any rate the kids will have milk for their Zucaritas tomorrow morning and the cupboards won’t be bare when we welcome home our man.

Bolivia Update

Thank you for your prayers for the nation of Bolivia. Things have calmed down considerably.

This past weekend was odd, to say the least. Friday afternoon it was announced by pro-socialist leaders that the protesters that were blocking the main highways would lift the blockades. The reasons were varied. Some of the blockades were indeed cleared; but some still remained.

This last week here in Cochabamba the ministry Compassion held a 5 day conference with a concert planned as the grand finale. The concert was cancelled because the streets in front of the hotel that the singer was staying at were full of violent protesters. They were not protesting the conference, just the political issues. Of the 4,500 attendees to the conference just over 400 came from Santa Cruz.

As the buses were dispatched Friday evening after the conference to return to Santa Cruz safe passage was promised. Yet, 20 minutes outside of town the protesters began to attack the bus with rocks and large fireworks that served as rockets to shoot at the windows. Much glass was broken and the passengers were made to get off the bus while the drunken protesters interrogated them to find out if they were pro-democracy.

The people in the group told the protesters that they were Christians and showed them their bibles and the admission bracelets from the conference. The protesters demanded that they pray on the spot to prove that what they were saying was true. It is a common belief here that someone is incapable of uttering a prayer unless they are truly a spiritual person.

Finally the drivers and passengers were allowed to get back on the buses and return to Cochabamba. The reason I know these details is because some of those passengers were my friends. I called them on their cell Saturday morning to see if they had made it back to Santa Cruz.

After finding out that they didn’t get back to their hotel in Cochabamba until 4 in the morning I told them to sleep and then come over to my house for lunch. Being leaders of a group of 10 they didn’t want to abandon the youth they had brought. So I told them that they could all come. It ended up being a fun time.

On Sunday after church I took the kids out to eat and then over to a friend’s house so I could go shopping to get a few things “just in case”. (No house help, no hubby, gotta rely on friends.) But when I got to the store the doors were only half way open and there were armed guards all over the place. The place was full of customers but almost empty of the basics. No milk, no meat, no bread, etc. They had diapers so that is a good thing.

Things should be normalizing in this city this week. The city of La Paz seems to be the next target for the pro-socialists.

You can continue to pray. We are not out of the dark yet.

On the flip side church attendance has been strong. There have been many visitors and people coming back to church that we haven’t seen in a while. Even though the persecution is political, it has still had a positive effect in the church. History has proven that the church thrives under pressure and persecution. We are praying that the members and their families are kept safe during these trying times and that many people come to have an encounter with the true and living God as they seek to make sense of all that is going on around them.

Personally, our family is full of peace and great anticipation for how the Lord is going to use all these occurrences to His benefit. We are praying against a spirit of terror. As you walk around the people have a tense, solemn expression on their faces. And as you speak with them some have tears in their eyes, others have a trembling voice as they speak out the worries they have about the future.

Last year many missionary organizations “exported” their missionaries. Some that had been here for more than 20 years were told that the political situation was too unstable for them to continue in Bolivia. At this point in time we do not feel that we need to leave the country. We are constantly before the Lord seeking His will and direction. You can pray that we continue to hear Him clearly and obey Him.