La Vid Verdadera

I like this story – it’s a good one. But I anticipate it will take me more than a few paragraphs and a couple of bullet-point lists to tell it well. I want to do justice to this story.
For the nine Sundays we have been in Guatemala, we have attended four different churches and have attempted to attend five. (One of the mentioned churches doesn’t have Sunday morning services, which we didn’t find out until Sunday morning.) Here’s a run-down of the first three:
1) El Camino de Dios – Sam calls this church the “bread church” because they have a beautiful basket of sweet bread in the foyer. This church is bilingual. All the worship is done in both English and Spanish. An American pastor preaches in English and a translator relays the message in Spanish. We enjoyed this church very much, but couldn’t resist the feeling that it was a church geared more towards tourists and mission groups. We believe the church is doing great things, but weren’t so convinced it was for us.
2) Cordero de Dios – This church had a very familiar feel. This means they sang hymns we recognized, followed a familiar format, etc. There was something about this church, however, that didn’t make me feel like it was the right fit.
3) The Presbyterian mission – This particular Sunday we even had someone from the church come pick us up and welcome us very warmly. This church was very small (perhaps 20 members). This was our saddest Sunday, because Sam had a very hard time at this church. Basically, the children’s pastor didn’t take the best approach to introducing Sam. He pointed out to all the kids that “God has sheep, all sheep are different colors, and today we have a little white sheep.” Unfortunately, kids pointed…and laughed at my sweet little white sheep. (I was on the scene by this point). Sam got very upset and said that he didn’t understand why they were laughing so much when he hadn’t even told a joke. The rest of the morning progressed in a bit of an uncomfortable manner. We took Sam to McDonald’s that day for the first time. He ate chicken nuggets and felt much better.
After about a month, we really began to pray diligently about where we should worship, what would be best for our children, where we could serve and find community and have all the wonderful things we all desire in a church. We had prayed before, but perhaps not so diligently.
Around the same time, we started to consider hosting a home-church here at our house. There were several reasons we thought we were feeling lead this way and began to pray to ask God to pave the way if it was right. Here are a few reasons we thought seriously about this option:
• We are acquaintances with two missionary couples who had both expressed a similar frustration with finding a church home. We had thought perhaps a home Bible study group would minister to them. And plus, we thought it would be cool to be a missionary to the missionaries. 
• We very much desire a church home where we can invite friends. At this time, I already had a good friend in my neighborhood that was asking wonderful, spiritual questions and told us she would be very interested in attending something in our home.
• We could be flexible with the time.
• We had at least two other encounters with people that we felt like we could invite to a home Bible study.
Granted some of the reasons were a bit selfish, but I really feel like we approached the idea openly – meaning we were happy if it happened and we were happy if it wasn’t the right thing. The one thing we wanted to avoid was starting a home church just because we “didn’t like” the other options, or because we wanted to serve ourselves only. We want to serve God.
Three weeks ago Saturday I had coffee with one of the missionary wives. I told her about our idea and had honestly anticipated planning out some details with her. Surprisingly to me, she wasn’t very enthused. She felt like it wasn’t something they were interested in at the time and explained that their current schedule wouldn’t allow consistent commitment. I was bummed.
Later that same day (the same day) we were in the park. Ruthie started to play ball with another little girl about her age and so naturally, I started to talk to the little girl’s mom. The mom (a Central American woman whose name is Leslie) shared that she is a missionary and is married to an American named Seth. After a nice conversation, I asked about where she attended church and explained that we were really hoping to find a place to worship.
She shared with me the name and location of her church, but didn’t seem too enthused about inviting me. She shared that her church is very expressive and that her own husband was uncomfortable when he first started attending. She said we were welcome, but she wasn’t sure how we would like it.
That evening Stephen and I went back and forth with the idea of attending and finally decided we should. I called her at 9:00 p.m. that night to clarify directions and we were at the church the next morning.
It was amazing. It was different. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before. The church is pure Pentecostal love. The music is very loud. They prophesy. They speak in tongues. During prayer, the women cover their heads. They dance in the aisle with tambourines. It’s wild.
When we left the service that morning I could sense that Stephen and I were both even nervous to ask each other how we felt about it. Stephen finally broke the ice and admitted that he really liked it. I felt such relief because I did, too!
The congregation is about 300 members strong. The impression that we get is that the majority of the congregation is working, middle class. The pastor is very dynamic, intelligent, and educated. They have a structured children’s area that is well-staffed and loving. Sam has enjoyed himself all three weeks. Last week he cried because we didn’t stay longer.
Unless something really creeps us out, we feel pretty committed to the church even after just three weeks. Here’s a few reasons why:
• It’s different. I think God likes different, or we would all be the same. (That’s deep if you let it sink in a second.) It’s nice to experience something so different sometimes.
• I like the pastor.
• I feel God’s presence.
• I like that they have structure and freedom in their worship service, which is a hard combo to pull off.
• It’s a place I can invite others.
So, if you remember earlier in the story, I mentioned a good friend I have that has been asking wonderful, spiritual questions. I invited her to my new church. Today she came. I confess, I somehow I managed to be confident and nervous about inviting her all at the same time. You just never really know how someone who has been mostly unchurched will respond to all the Pentecostal love. I took a deep breath and trusted God. And of course God moved and worked in his amazing ways. During the worship time, the pastor came over to her, and very privately told her that God loved her, God wanted good things in her life, and that God was the source of real life. My friend started to cry. Really cry, because she was obviously touched. As the service progressed, my friend participated more and more. We debriefed a little in the car on the way home, but I can confidently say that God wants her so badly and is moving in some great ways. I am privileged to be a part of it. I’m happy my wild Pentecostal love church has something to do with it, too.