Sunday, July 4, 2010

Church this morning was good. Once again, Pastor Mike’s sermon challenged me; makes me think. I like that. I was so afraid I’d stop growing not necessarily in my relationship with God, but in my knowledge of Him. Don’t think that will happen after hearing Pastor Mike preach two Sundays. He has a great way of weaving the truth in with a challenge. Today’s challenge was: “What are you doing to put whatever measure of Love, Faith and Obedience you have into action?” He focused not so much on how much love and faith each of us has, but on how obedient we are in putting it into action. I think I can chew on this one for at least a week.


I experienced communion for the first time at Caminos today. They do it differently than I have ever experienced it. Pastor Mike breaks a large loaf of bread in half and leaves it on the table with a cup of grape juice. Each person goes up, breaks off a piece, dips it in the grape juice, and eats. For some reason, I found this active participation in “taking and eating” very meaningful. Don’t know how often they do communion, but am glad they did it today.

Had lunch with the family and some friends of theirs from the city. Their daughter is the first person with Down’s that I’ve seen in Guatemala. She is very bright and verbal young woman, though a little shy.  Her mom pulled me aside to talk about her.  She really is a sweetheart. And you can tell her folks have done a lot to stimulate her and care very deeply for her.  After seeing all the kids whose parents can't take care of them, even though they love them, it was kind of nice to see a family able to keep their child and help her grow.
 
 Leo and Mari take great pleasure in telling people how I’m now living with them “forever” and Leo continues to introduce me as his “American Mama.” This is pretty funny, since I’m pretty sure he’s as old as I am, if not older! It feels good to be part of a family that I'm not the "head" of.


Raining again. Sounds like a good time for a nap! It feels rather funny to take two days in a row off just to relax. But I know I need it. In church today I realized how much I need just to be a participant in worship and not responsible for anything. I don’t want to become a pew sitter, but after years of having Sunday morning responsibilities, it’s kind of nice just to be able to focus on worship.  Seems like maybe my act of obedience right now is to focus on being with more than doing things for Jesus. 
 
I think that maybe one of the biggest mistakes we Christians make is putting our Faith and Love into action, before we check out how God is calling us to do this.  Maybe some of us are mature enough to just sense His movement in our hearts at all times, but I still think it's good to stop and check things out with Him.  So, I'm trying to do what He has shown me to do, right here, right now.  And I'm trying to keep the focus on Him, looking for what He is doing in the  people and situations I encounter every day, and asking Him how He is inviting me to join Him in His work.  Right now that's giving me more than enough to do.