Church In The Sticks

Yesterday, as part of our church's (Community Church of Columbus) annual House Church Sunday, the girls and I went to church - to be the church - at Luke & Billie's lovely Indiana farmhouse, armed with a pan of French Toast to share for breakfast. Digging through Mark chapter 2 together with the kids, we marveled at the friends of the paralyzed man, who knocked through a hard mud roof to lower their friend down so that he could see Jesus in this crowded gathering. The kids escaped to play around the farm, and the rest of us chewed over things like the sovereignty of God, why God allows suffering, His eternal plan of redemption, and the fact that Job (a man famous for the book in the Bible bearing his name and story of his suffering) probably wasn't thinking how his story was going to be used to teach so many of us in centuries since. Job was just trying to be faithful. 

Ah, the challenge. To be faithful to God today. Whether my circumstances are bringing me oodles of joy or the deepest heartache.

Bwa Nèf - New Wood Church

Back in Haiti a few Sundays ago, we joined about 20 people, mostly women and children, to worship in their stick-framed church in Bwa Nèf, about 30 minutes’ drive on rough roads from the OMS mission compound outside Cap‐Haitien. 

Just minutes into the service, Esther was already asking if it was gonna be
over soon. A couple of sweets I had stashed in my bag helped her endure.

We'd heard about Bwa Nèf for a while—it’s a village where our co‐worker said: "There are people there, but there's no life", speaking of the physical and spiritual poverty, where people are yearning for something more, not realizing what they’re lacking is a living relationship with God. It’s an area where voodoo has a strong grip on people. Our teams have done outreach many times here, sharing the Gospel again and again, leaving households with a solar radio so that people can listen to Radio 4VEH, and to the New Testament in their heart language (read by Storly). It’s all been encouraged by a dedicated pastor, Pastor Janiel, who's a leader and church planter with OMS' Every Community for Christ church-planting ministry. 

I've been needing a photo of Haitian children praying, for some Vacation Bible School
materials we're working on for the Resounding Hope radios initiative. Glad I got this one. 

"Please, take my picture!"

It was great to be with the people of Bwa Nef church, quite literally out in the sticks, with families being nurtured by the daily broadcasting of Radio 4VEH. During the service, this lady (above) sang, to “thank God”. When she committed her life to God, she worried that she still owed a (spiritual) debt to the voodoo spirits, paid via ceremonies performed by the local witch doctor. She learned from Pastor Janiel that through Jesus, all debts have been paid, and she's free. That's something to sing about.

Plenty of smiles from Hannah (now the service is over!). It's a challenge as they
understand very little of what's going on. 

Villagers gather at the water pump just down the road from the church.

Whether it's in a church building, a home or in the middle of a bunch of sticks, it's good to be together as His church.