Wow! I had the incredible opportunity to minister tonight in the church of a true man of trust in God, Pastor Carlos Garcia in Rosario de la Frontera, Salta, Argentina. I had met him briefly last month at a pastor's meeting and he invited me to come and see the church, meet the people and preach the service. We set a date on the calendar. Today was that date.
The day started with me getting up at 5:30 am to wake up, shave, shower, and get out the door in time to get across town to the bus terminal and head out at 7:00 am. Thankfully, the temps have warmed up a bit and it was not so bitter cold today as it has been for the last couple of weeks! It was a cool walk to the terminal, but I could not see my breath and I could feel my face. ha.
I arrived in Rosario de la Frontera at 10:45 am...well ahead of the 6 pm service time. Why so early? Well, there are only 3 options per day on the bus: to arrive at 5:45 am - waaaaaay to early, to arrive at 10:45 am, or to arrive at 7 pm - too late. So, I had to go for the only 1 of the 3 options that worked. (Just one more reason I need to get the car fixed. lol.) It's all good. It gave me lots of alone time to finish praying and prepping for the service. - When you have 5 people living in a tiny 2 bedroom home, alone time can be hard to find. : )
I finished up my prayer and prep with about an hour to spare. I was exhausted, so I laid down in a quiet spot across a couple of seats. I had just passed out when an attendant woke me up and informed me that I needed to sleep sitting up. - Apparently I was looking too much like a vagrant. I don't think they wanted me to attract the wrong kind of people to the terminal. : )
I can not sleep sitting up (part of why I was so tired in the first place - no rest on the journey here) so I tried to keep working. I don't think I got a lot accomplished. Too wiped out.
The pastor came to pick me up in his little car and showed me around town a bit. Rosario de la Frontera is a city of about 35,000 people. He would love to plant a church downtown, but it is just too expensive for land. There are only a couple of small evangelical churches in town, all on the outskirts. He shared with me that between them all they have less than 100 people - less than 1 1/10th of 1 %!
This is one of those places that no one wants to plant a church - very poor community, lots of opposition, little hope for success. He has been working away hard here for over 10 years and right now the church only runs about 15 people. It has been higher, but people move, etc.
He and his family truly live by faith! He gave up a very lucrative job working as a public school teacher/ administrator. He made great money, had all he wanted, and no worries. BUT, God was calling him to leave it to follow His leading to plant churches in hard places. He said that many weeks the offering only amounts to a few dollars - less than what they need to pay one bill: I.E. gas, and then there is still food, etc to pay for. God HAS to provide. And He does! : )
The church is small, built of cinder block, and not yet complete. All of their progress has come from donations. Just when they really have to have something, someone shows up out of the blue and says, "God told me to give this to you." Again, it is ALL by faith.
They took up an offering tonight - oh, by the way, I preached and I think things went well. The small crowd was hard to read - not very expressive. They were very gracious afterward. - and Pastor told me in the car on the way to the bus terminal that it was for me. I politely refused and let him know that I came to be a blessing, not to be a drain on the churches finances. We politely danced around it a bit, he trying to be generous, and me trying to be a blessing to them. I assured him that our support was from the states so that we need not burden the churches here. He finally relented gracefully. I felt that I did the right thing, the necessary thing, and that I did not step on toes culturally. I sure do not want to offend, or upset them. I don't believe that happened. In fact, he would like for me to come back again, and this time with the entire family if possible.
I did not bring the fam this time, because - what would I do with those 3 poor little ones of mine: up at the crack of dawn, having to travel across town and across the country, 7 hours with nothing to do, a service, 3 2 more hours of nothing to do, a long trip home, and not getting to bed until 2:30 or 3 in the morning! No. I think I will wait until we can fix the STL SUV and take it. : )
Pastor's family is awesome too. He has 2 little ones - ages 7 & 8. The oldest is learning English for the 1st time so she was full of "How do you say___________, in English?" questions. I am used to it though. We are about the only gringos that most people get a chance to practice on in this part of the country. : ) They can't wait for me to come back and meet our kids. I am sure that our kids will love meeting them and my wife, his wife.
Well, I don't know how much longer my battery is going to survive so I will sign off for today.
Please pray for Pastor Garcia, his family and the church in Rosario de la Frontera.
God bless - Good Night!
No comments:
Post a Comment