A few thoughts about our recent mission trip to Lima, Peru...
Several years ago, I made four mission trips to Honduras. I remember the exact same feeling of understanding that I felt last week in Lima, Peru...God is truly omnipresent. His Holy Presence fills every square inch of our world, and beyond.
In Psalm 139:7-12 David wrote,
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
Sometimes you have to go to what seems like the ends of the earth to fully appreciate that. In Lima, we worked with Pastor Javier Francisco Severino Huaman, a true servant of Christ, if there ever was one. Pastor Javier oversaw three different church operations, very effectively. He and his wife Dewanna had two wonderful adult children, both serving Christ. The Spirit of God was all over that family and that marvelous church. We didn’t pack the Holy Spirit up and deliver it to the people of Peru. They were already basking in the Light...and God was with us when we left, and stayed with those folks as well....omnipresently.
Another aspect I took away from Lima is people are spiritually hungry for the Truth. We spent days going door to door, shack to shack at times, and not once did I encounter a person not interested in hearing our message. They had a yearning for something more than this world has to offer and God used us to deliver it. I’m sorry to say, in our country, we’re not as hungry for the Truth. Maybe it’s because we feel we have everything we need. In Mark 10:17, a man we familiarly know as the rich young ruler came running up to Jesus, fell on his knees, saying, "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Here was one who had all the world had to offer, but he lacked something. He had a void in his life that money and power couldn’t fill. In Peru, we didn’t encounter the rich and powerful, just the opposite. But they felt the same need for Christ as the rich young ruler. No matter which end of the spectrum you more closely relate to, the need is the same.
One last thought I have about the mission trip concerns the one that got away...When I was a senior in high school, our basketball team won the state championship. We had many moments that I remember with a great deal of fondness. But there was that one game that got away as I missed a shot at the buzzer that would’ve won the game. As the ball left my hand, I was sure I’d made it, only to see it fall off the rim. That, too, is etched in my basketball memory banks...In Lima, there was a young man named Carlos. Carlos, despite our efforts, clung to his mixture of Buddhism, Jehovah Witness, stirred in with some Christianity. He admitted he had no idea where he would be if he should die, but he enjoyed exploring lots of beliefs. My crusade partner and I talked to him for over an hour, pleading the case for Christ, to no avail. Carlos is still lost and while there were nearly 1700 commitments to Christ during our crusade, Carlos is like that shot that fell off the rim so many years ago, etched in my mind. Carlos is a reminder that there’s still work to do. And the Holy Spirit will never let me stop praying for Carlos...and all the other Carlos’s of the world.
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