Sometimes, pushing yourself to go to work can be so hard. I remember when I was working at Bob Evan’s in the states as a server and absolutely dreading the drive to work. I knew in my head, however, that I was going to be fine and I would be with all my friends and I’d end up having a good night at work, though I can’t say the tips ever made my night I would walk out of the restaurant with a smile.
After not having to really work for some time now, and I mean real work other than just going to class with friends, I found I’ve gotten a little lazy. Uh-oh! Wednesday our pastor at Umacollo church told my partner and I to meet him at Parque el Catolica to get on a bus to go to Paucarpata for our first cell group. He also invited us last week, but things came up and we couldn’t go. The truth… I was relieved last week that we didn’t have to go.
Let me briefly explain what the cell groups are. These are practically our church plants. A plant starts out with a cell group that we work with through discipleship lessons and baptism then through membership classes. This is the Level 1 of church plants. Level two is 12 or more people meeting in a designated place once a week and then Level 3 is 30 people, but there’s more regulations that I’m not 100% sure of so I’m not going to try to expand upon that. But essentially Level 2 is our goal and 3 is our ULTIMATE goal. Level 3 is a immature church but more a church nonetheless.
This past Wednesday, when I heard we were going out to Paucarpata I was not excited to say the least. It’s about an hour and a half bus trip to the other side of the city. I started getting frustrated with myself for being so negative and by the time class was over that day I was somewhat happy to be going out to see Saul.
The more I write the more I realize I have to explain! Saul is a 20 yr old guy who has come to Umacollo church several times and we’ve run into at the Plaza de Armas as well. He went to one of the churches first retreats and gave his life to Christ. He was really excited about it. Well, he is the one person that we have in our cell group in Paucarpata… he is our main focus.
So, we end up leaving Zamacola, (our residence) an hour and a half late… that’s another story, and pick up Pastor Genaro at Pq la Catolica. We travel out to Paurcarpata and end up meeting Saul right when we hop off the bus. I don’t think that we had ever set up a time with him to meet him anywhere that day so I thought that was pretty amazing.
From the people that I’ve talked to about this whole mess that this became, I’ve found out that when Saul made his initial decision to come to Christ at the retreat he was very very excited. His parents are not supportive at all about his decision and being so far from the church he has no daily support spiritually. We couldn’t meet with him in his house so we went to a dark cold park to talk where he shared with us his doubts and worries about his decision. The pastor was giving him a watered-down talk about our spiritual walks and tried encouraging him by telling him after the storm comes the “good.” I didn’t really feel like he was talking to him from the heart…
An hour and an half later we are on the bus coming back home and Genaro tells us that there are people like this when they make their initial decision and that we (Joel and I) should come to his cell group in Gustamante with his wife. When I asked him what we were going to do with Saul he said that since we have his e-mail address then we can send him encouraging messages and pray for him… I believe he worded this… “Well, we can just pray for him.” This was only the second time that he had visited Saul. I was perplexed that he was so quick to let him go and leave him by himself. I felt the Holy Spirit telling me that we needed to push to continue visiting Saul. Joel was thinking the same thing, I found out later.
This is where I am right now. This Sunday I’m going to be talking with the Pastor. The other cell group he wants us to get involved now is the largest cell group the church has running and is also being lead by leaders in the church already. Please pray as I talk to him and try to tell him that we believe there is much more need to stay in touch with Saul. Even though it doesn’t matter what the pastor says and I can certainly continue to have a personal relationship with Saul, I would like however, for this to be my main concentration.
My friend Kayla sent me a package… it was so nice. It is the first package I have recieved since being here, which happens to be a hard thing watching other people get packages allllll theeee tiiiiiiime! Here’s something special she sent!
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