Blessings to everyone,
I pray all is well with you.
So there I was last week, returning home for lunch from some of the daily stuff that I do down here and I started thinking about a blog that I wanted to send out. I started thinking about so many of the blogs that I have sent out in the past and it is quite likely that many of you simply think that I take care of orphans, am in the midst of building a new orphan facility and do these really interesting things like take 5 hour trips into the jungle to build a small house for a missionary, or drive 4 hours in the other direction to hand out clothes, medical supplies and food to a poor community of about 200 people that live in the middle of nowhere, or spend a day in another state here in Mexico helping out victims that lost homes because of a flood that destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes. And why is it that I could possibly think this? Because those are the things that I blog about. Those really neat trips out into the great unknown!
BUT I wanted to send out a much different blog post this week. One that reminds me and hopefully you all that we all must KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING so far as Christian missions is concerned.
Do Christian missionaries do those things that I wrote about above? Certainly we do but that is not what makes us Christian missionaries. And I am not only talking about foreign missionaries; I am talking about local missionaries to your community and surrounding cities…..that is all of us!
What makes us missionaries is that along with our good works we take the good news message of the gospel to a lost and dying world. What good is a prolonged life of good health and comfortable surroundings if a person’s ultimate destiny is to live forever separated from the only true and living God in a place of terrible torment? Answer: there is nothing good about that scenario; we would only be making it more comfortable for the lost while on their way to hell.
So I wanted to write to you and let you know that your support of ´KeelingMinistries´ (also known as ´Living Among Them Ministries´) does not only go for those awesome trips into the great unknown but most importantly it helps Sarita and I minister to the local people that we live among (if you have not done so, you might want to look to the right of this blog and read why our blog site is entitled ´living among them´…)
Soooo, why was I thinking about all of this last week? Why was I thinking about KEEPING THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING?
Because I had just spent about 4 hours with one man who I hope and pray will one day kneel at the feet of Jesus and utter the same words that the Psalmist did in Psalm 107, “Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.”
This man’s name is Felix. I have written about him before but just in passing. He is a man that has been in my life since the first days here in Teopisca. He did not really know I existed for the first six months because whenever we would meet, and I mean every time, he was drunk. I, and Sarita as well, saw him drunk so many times in the streets of Teopisca that I lost count. I would talk with him when I could but most of the days he was too far gone and the conversations would not last very long. Sarita and I would pray for him but that was all that we could do…not that praying is a feeble thing.
Well, all that changed one day in January 2008. I went to Central Park here in Teopisca for the first time with a few pastors and we, well they, did some street preaching. We sang a few songs and we proclaimed the gospel message. While the men were preaching, I was handing out some tracts and talking with the people that would walk by or that were just hanging out on the benches. (there were probably 80 people that heard us that night…this is not Central Park in New York!)
So I turned around during this event and I saw my “friend” Felix sitting on a bench about 30 feet from where I was. I went up to him and over the next 30 minutes, I was able to talk with him a little about the gospel. A say a little about the gospel because he was drunk of course but at least he was still this time as he sat on the bench. He got up to leave during our conversation and I asked him where he was going and he said he didn’t know. I told him that I would take him home and he said ok…problem was, he didn’t know where home was. I drove around the streets of Teopisca for about 15 minutes and we were not getting anywhere with that so I decided to ask people if they knew Felix and where he lived; and the people did. The first person told me he lived in that direction…so I went that direction…the next told me to go down this road…so I did…the third told me that he lived just around the corner…so I went around the corner…and the fourth pointed to the third house and told me that was his…so that is where we ended up. I knocked on the door and his wife and two of his children greeted me. His two children are probably 30 and 27. We sat and talked for about 20 minutes and they told me that Felix doesn’t drink for weeks at a time but when he does, then he will disappear for 15 of 20 days and just drink and drink and drink…returning sometimes at home to sleep for a few hours. So I took in that information and I left.
Well the next week I went back to Central Park to take part in street preaching once again. And guess who showed up? Yep, my friend Felix. But this time things were different. He had on his “nice clothes.” His shirt was pressed and he had on his good sombrero. We sat and talked for about 45 minutes. We talked about his life in general and we talked about the word of God and the gospel. He told me that he did not want to drink but that Satan talks him into it. Well after we talked, he left on his own and I invited him to my house that Thursday. We confirmed the time and I went by and picked up Felix and his family on the appointed day. They came over for dinner (7 of them) and we had a good time. I read a Psalm and some from the New Testament. We finished dinner and they left BUT that started a great relationship with this family.
From that day forward, about every 7 to 10 days I would go over to Felix’s house and read the bible with him, and most of the time with his wife Margarita and some of his kids or grandchildren. I read the bible to them because neither he nor his family can read; which is not unusual here in the state we live in…the illiteracy rate down here is over 50%. But it was not uncommon to arrive some days and be told that he was out drinking and had been for some days. He would also come by the house every so often while drunk.
Ok so almost done.
Lately things have been different.
For the past 2 months or so he has come by the house more often and he has wanted me to come to his house on a more regular basis. He has not been drinking for about 3 months now and he says that he doesn’t want to ever do that again. We talk a whole bunch about what the bible says and he has even started asking more questions. He is not a Christian to date but I want to believe that the Holy Spirit may be working on him…ever so slowly but working nonetheless.
So last week he invited me to go along with him up to his property on one of the mountains that surrounds Teopisca. It probably took us about 45 minutes to walk up to the very top of that mountain where his corn and bean fields are…stopping only once…man, was I ever grateful for that stop…this man is 55 and walks up that mountain like it is nothing…something to be said about being accustomed to what you do!
When we got to the top, he took me to a cave where we stopped and talked for almost one hour. He told me about rituals that the Catholics do here at this site and also how the witches….and I mean real witches who live here in Teopisca…come and perform rituals and rites as well. The Lord opened up so many doors to speak about His word in so many different areas. But the biggest door that was opened was when he started talking about being a good person and about doing good works so that God would be happy…that was an opening that I took advantage of.
I can’t say that my friend Felix understands all that I have told him thus far but I can say that he understand many things. Although one thing that I couldn’t get him to agree with is that he continues to sin even though he is not drinking…he continues to express to me that the only sin that he has in his life is his drinking problem even though I read him passages that talk about anger and lust and many other things that Jesus spoke about. But he mentions sin all the time to me now so at least I know that it is on his mind.
So why did I write this lengthy correspondence?????
Because as Christians we must remember to KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING!!!
We can’t get side tracked and think that because we are giving money to good Christian causes, or are helping the poor or are involved in a myriad of activities at the church that we are released from our God given mandate to evangelize this dark and lost generation of people that we live among. It is easy to lose sight of the Main Thing; especially when doing ministry among so many people with physical needs. Believe me…I know it is difficult to keep the MAIN THING THE MAIN THING.
So what is the MAIN THING?
Pursuing that for which Christ came to this earth…Romans 15:8,9 tells us this purpose.
“Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: ‘For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name.’”
We must be about proclaiming the glorious riches of Christ to a people who are blind and ignorant so that they may see, understand and savor the wonderful, matchless and merciful goodness of our Lord and Savior so that they may spend forever glorifying His name.
Take a look at the pics which show my little journey with my friend Felix. Please pray for him and his family!
Sarita and I do these types of things on a weekly basis with so many individuals and families down here in Teopisca, so I wanted to share with you some of the things that we do that don’t make the headlines of our blog posts.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog!
Blessings to all,
Lance, Sarita and Joshua
Here the three of us are at Felix´s house with his wife Margarita...we are helping him ¨shuck¨his corn so that he will have lots of granuals to make his tortillas and other foods made out of cornmeal...we just sit around many days and talk about life in general as well as the word of God!
This is a pic of Felix holding Joshua about a week before these other pics were taken of our journey up the mountain...Joshua has a big smile on his face...actually Felix and Joshua are good buds now...Felix loves to hold him and make baby noises to him....
This is the beginning our journey up into the mountains...with some pretty flowers along the way...
crossing over into his field at the very top of the mountain...
here we are checking out the beans that he and his family have been cutting off of the stalks of corn...they grow corn and beans together since the bean stalks need something to grow on...
This is the entrance to the cave that I spoke about above...Felix didn´t tell me until after we peaked our head into the cave that there is a huge 8 foot long snake that supposedly lives in there...a gift from the witches!!!...i guess it is supposed to be part of their rituals as well...
here is a pic of the cross at the top of the cave...like I said, not only do witches take part in rituals here but so do the Catholics who pray to the earth among other things...Felix told me that they think it will bring them good crops...
Here is Felix shaving open some sugar cane for us to eat as we had our hour long talk which I wrote about above...you probably can´t see it but he has a huge smile on his face and actually his is out of control laughing as he had just told me a good joke...almost the best part of the day :)...
These next two pics show us walking down the other side of the mountain going to take breakfast to his son and his nephew who were working the fields picking the beans as well...off in the distance you can see our little city of Teopisca...There are between 15,000 and 20,000 people that live in and around Teopisca in little communities...
This is a bag of about 80 lbs of beans that they had picked that morning...
And here we are eating breakfast....eggs, some type of beef (I did not ask), beans and corn of course, and tortillas...you can see that Felix likes to laugh....
Photo of his corn field up at the top of the mountain...
Pic of the mountain that we climbed....
We brought back his two horses to feed and water them...they use the momma horse to carry the corn and beans back to the house...
Here we are back at Felix´s house....
That is how the babies are carried around here in Teopisca...most of Mexico for that matter...this is Felix`s daughter in law and newest grandchild....
that´s all folks...
