Divine Appointments

What does your normal day look like?  Is it filled with lots of things to do?  Or is it not filled with much?  Either way, we all have our ways about living day to day.  And if we are honest, we all have a hidden agenda in our minds on how we perceive what the day should look like.  And if something happens that’s unexpected, it throws us off of our plans.  Then we have a choice, we can either have a good or bad attitude about it.

Think about a time where something completely unexpected happened.  And during that time, you thought to yourself, wow, I would have never expected that.  Well, that is what happened to Henri and I recently.  We were walking the outbound streets of the market on our way to get back to the house quickly, and one of the boys that we have been ministering to, ran into us.  He is one of the six boys that live together in a nearby indigenous Mayan town, and comes to the market streets to shine shoes every day.  His name is Juan and he is fourteen years old.

All he wanted to do is just talk and be with us for a while after a long day with hardly any business shining shoes.  Within minutes of our conversation, we could tell he had feelings of desperation.  A couple of weeks back, Henri and I shared our faith in Christ and rightfully proclaimed the gospel to him and his friends as we were having a meal together on the street corner.  But for Juan, he was hungry for more, and it was all because of The Lord working in his heart.  As we spent more time with him, he was talking about some of the poverty he deals with but did not ask us for anything.  The only hunger he had was to know more of who The Father is; His saving grace and mercy to all of us sinners in the world.

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  -Romans 10:14-17

———————————————————- 

“Nuestra casa es su casa.”  Senora Nellie and her husband told us after our visit to their home after church with their three boys.  They are a family that runs two stores, one for selling clothes at the market, and one is a hardware store in the front of their house.

This family that The Father led us to has been very special and welcoming of us.  They prepared a meal for us, and as we ate together we shared some stories in each of our lives, getting to know each other more.

“Tengo un bebe de comida!”  (I have a “food baby”!)  I told the family.  As we all laughed and traded more jokes, The Lord brought us all to His purpose for our lives – As a Christian, we are called to be holy and mature disciples of Jesus Christ.

And from that moment forward the parents of Kenneth, Isaac, and Edwin told us that they would like for us to disciple their three boys.  Praise be to God!  After we ate together, five of us went exploring the town they live in for most of the rest of the day.  A friendship was strengthened and a discipleship journey has begun…

‘So Jesus said to those who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”’  -John 8:31-32

——————————————————————————————————–

On another note, there is a big issue in Guatemala and throughout the world with a jaded belief that in one’s church, the calling is to only reach out to those with the same socio-economic status as your own, completely forgetting about what it says about orphans and widows in the Bible.  And not only that, but a false belief in that if you have “enough” faith, then you will be blessed with earthly things.  It is a Christian religious doctrine that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, and that faith, positive speech, and donations to Christian ministries will always increase one’s material wealth.  And this IS WRONG!  This is hurting people in Guatemala, but here are only some of the Biblical guidelines to combat this:  

“Don’t preach a gospel that makes good work a means of getting rich.”  

“Don’t preach a gospel that promotes less faith in God’s promise and diminishes the glory of God’s help.” 

“Don’t preach a gospel that obscures the God-ordained purposes of suffering in the Christian life.” 

“Don’t preach a gospel that obscures the biblical truth that God himself is the greatest treasure.”

Overall, when the gospel of Jesus Christ is rightfully proclaimed, this is when real long term change started to happen in all of history.  It is the best long term benefit that can be done for anyone.

With that said, after being sick for a long week around a month back, and starting to feel homesick from family and friends, it was very refreshing to get a visit from my Senior Pastor and Orphan Ministry Leader, Walt and Steve (respectively).  It was a great day as we visited My Special Treasure girl’s orphanage again and met a local Guatemalan Pastor that cares for orphans.  He wants orphans apart of his church; to not treat them as second class citizens, but to treat them with dignity and love, as they desperately need, being beloved children of the Kingdom of God.

“O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.”  -Psalms 10:17-18