Monday, May 18, 2009

A service of Thanksgiving

I arrived in the Dominican Republic yesterday at 3:45 and was outside with luggage in 5 minutes-a minor miracle. From there we traveled 30 minutes to Guerra, where one of the sisters was having a service of thanksgiving at her home. They were alreay singing when we arrived--between 65 & 70 people and after a couple of songs I preached to the group. Most of the brethren from Guerra (25 or so) were present, which means there were around 40 visitors, so my theme was the importance of knowing God´s Word, encouraging them to ask the local brethren for help. One of the "problems" here is that close to half of the older men can´t read but are ashamed to admit it, so anything that might reveal this "weakness" they shun. Studying the Bible can be very embarrasing because they are asked to read, so I dealt with that a little.

After the service was over all were served juice, snacks in a small styrofoam box and what you would think of as a birthday cake.

The ocasion for thanksgiving was the new block house the family had. The sister is probably in her mid 30's, with 3 small children. She is a widow--her husband was killed in a car wreck about 3 years ago, leaving her with no job, 3 babies, and a small wood house (in the VI wood houses are called temporary houses--the first hurricane will destroy them). The company he worked for had pity on her and began the construction of the concrete block house and neighbors & family helped with the labor, a few pesos, etc. and she now has a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house with kitchen & living room (around 1000 square feet). She wanted to first thank God for her new home, then family & friends who helped, also taking advantage of the ocasion to let the Gospel be preached to them.

Tol

Monday, May 04, 2009

Going up to Glory

Yes, I was in Glory yesterday. I wasn't snatched up as the Apostol Paul was; we drove up the mountain to this neighborhood about 45 minutes from Ponce. It was glorious--the hills around us were lush & green with rain clouds on top. The yard of the house we were meeting had fruit trees, coffee trees and lots of flowers.

We had about 25 people for the service, including 10 or so from the church in Ponce. There are at least 7 brethren who live in this neighborhood who, although they have not regularly attended any congregation live "good" lives, read the Bible, etc. There are even more who didn't come--like everyone else today they "don't have time". Brethren from Ponce used to come up and "hold services" here, even though some of the brethren have been Christians for close to 30 years and most of them for more than 25. Yes, the brethren from La Gloria lead prayer, the Lord's table, perhaps a song but the preaching and teaching was done by those from Ponce.

I was told yesterday that they had not met together for 13 years--a few of them would go to Ponce from time to time to worship with the church there, but most didn't. How did a church like this get to the point that they just quit meeting? I don't know all the details, but it seems that they were dependent on those from Ponce, so when they stopped helping the work quit.

When Christians are new they need help, but as time passes they should mature to the point that they need less and less help. Too often though, brethren become dependent on others--brethren from another congregation, the preacher, etc. "They/he can preach much better than I can, so why should I try?" "I don't really know what to say to a non-Christian so I'll just let Brother _______ talk to them."

God commands each Christian to grow, to whatever level they can. If they don't grow, not only will the church not grow: it will eventually die.

Tol