On Evangelizing and Religion

The other day, my dad sent me an email asking what the people here believe.  It really depends.  Some are already Christians and many villages have churches.  The church I went to down the road last week was small.  There were probably 20 adult attendees not in our group.  However, they were well established.  They took the children out for Sunday School during the sermon.  In the village where we planted trees the first week, they had a church but not everyone that we talked to attended it.  I wasn't part of the evangelizing team since I was digging holes but from what I overheard, those that didn't know Jesus were open to it.  I'm not aware that they followed another religion; they just didn't believe in anything.  We introduced them to the idea of a relationship with God, gave them a Bible, and encouraged them to go to church and talk to their pastor.  Our mission is not to shove the Gospel down their throats and tell them that if they don't have a personal relationship with God, then bad things will happen; rather we want to show them God's love through service and go from there.  We can't fulfill their spiritual needs before addressing their material needs.

Because every post needs pictures.... I found Kinderschokolade here!

The kids that we've led VBS for are very excited about Jesus.  El Mitch already has an Awana-type program in place.  I was told that a church from somewhere in Pennsylvania has adopted the village and started the program there.  They even raised funds to send a staff worker down and provide them with these textbooklets.  When we went there for VBS, we led some songs and then they sang ones that they had learned for us.  On Saturday, we went to Pueblo del Rio to do another VBS and they had a blast.  They did skits, played games, and colored.  I was at the craft station where they decorated a paper plate that had Psalm 139:14 on it (I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul know right well.) A lot of parents were at that one too.  Eventually there was a braiding station because Nina started braiding a girl's hair and then everyone else wanted theirs done too.  

 

This morning we went to church in Llano Verde, the village adjacent to the Hope of Life campus.  They were bigger than last week's church.  They bring the children down from the orphanage and a few elderly and special needs kids as well. They had a band playing the songs and we all had lots of fun even though us Americans didn't know any of them.  The natives got really into it and you could see that they were excited for Jesus.  I got the impression that it was contemporary nondenominational rather than a specific denomination.  During lunch, a few of the Liberty students were talking about their host families and they were saying that there is a Catholic church and a Jehovah's Witness church in the area as well.