Monday, September 30, 2013
A response to a week in Bocachica
Rob Mancuso wrote a reflection on their trip here last week click on the this link to read the whole post. He has a good summary at the end, but read the whole post!
"For me, each trip has a “lesson” or point that God really drills home and makes abundantly clear in my mind and soul. The lesson for this trip was how important relationships are to God and how much He truly cares about how we love each other. God laid John 13:35 on my heart right before home group, where Jesus says, 'By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.'"
Sunday, September 29, 2013
September visitors
This past week was is a good example of unity for us, we had five very different churches come together to work and serve in various ways here in Bocachica. Very different people with different skills joined in with the community here to build up the body of Christ. It was a great time of fun, work, and edification.
The highlights for us were reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones. Like we always say it is more vacation than work when a group comes. They say a "team" is coming, but that word sounds cheap and insufficient considering the reality of the people who came. I can not relate in a post all the details of all the personalities present. The week was challenging and rewarding, both work and pleasure. All the work on the state side that made it possible, Nathan and Julie Heafner working to organize all the details. All the gifts from people that made the right hand not know what the left hand was doing, we can't thank everyone involved because we do not know all those who contributed to the work.
Despite the usual tropical affects of new stomach bacteria and insect bites and plants that cause strange rashes, everyone survived in good spirits. I can't give a full report of all that was done considering we had folks working simultaneously and I don't even know what all was done, I went in between the guys working on electrical and carpentry. We had a few nights of group updates and fellowship to see what everyone had accomplished. I think a vision was cast before some because I heard of plans for next time, how to more efficiently use the time, and how to advance in better ways. This is encouraging because it is evident to me that it isn't dependent on us to meet the goals, they are equal laborers.
I can share a few pictures, but this is a peek at little of what was done, and by no means exhaustive:
Bob and Nathan doing the electrical of one of the widow's houses in the village.
Picture of the guys with one of the widow's who got a new door from Ja Doss and Payton Doss
Damaris and Rob working in El Shadday with the computers.
Ja and Charlene Snead with Eulis the translator visiting a house in the community.
Thank you to everyone involved in all the aspects it took to make this happen.
The highlights for us were reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones. Like we always say it is more vacation than work when a group comes. They say a "team" is coming, but that word sounds cheap and insufficient considering the reality of the people who came. I can not relate in a post all the details of all the personalities present. The week was challenging and rewarding, both work and pleasure. All the work on the state side that made it possible, Nathan and Julie Heafner working to organize all the details. All the gifts from people that made the right hand not know what the left hand was doing, we can't thank everyone involved because we do not know all those who contributed to the work.
Despite the usual tropical affects of new stomach bacteria and insect bites and plants that cause strange rashes, everyone survived in good spirits. I can't give a full report of all that was done considering we had folks working simultaneously and I don't even know what all was done, I went in between the guys working on electrical and carpentry. We had a few nights of group updates and fellowship to see what everyone had accomplished. I think a vision was cast before some because I heard of plans for next time, how to more efficiently use the time, and how to advance in better ways. This is encouraging because it is evident to me that it isn't dependent on us to meet the goals, they are equal laborers.
I can share a few pictures, but this is a peek at little of what was done, and by no means exhaustive:
Damaris and Rob working in El Shadday with the computers.
Ja and Charlene Snead with Eulis the translator visiting a house in the community.
Thank you to everyone involved in all the aspects it took to make this happen.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Chocolate and more
I love this quote from a while back, and thought of it when we received all the gifts from the Antioch Church back home. One of the highlights of the many things we got is chocolate. So for enjoyment:
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The Fire and the Rose: A theology of chocolate
1. Chocolate is a gift of God. Like rainbows, manna, tobacco, beer, and coffee, chocolate is an expression of divine favor toward humanity. “Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17).
2. Chocolate is an event of human freedom accompanied by God (concursus dei) within the covenant of grace. Chocolate is not part of the original creation. The raw elements are found in nature, but human action had to bring these together in order to produce the glorious bar of chocolate that we now enjoy. While human autonomy often leads to the destruction and perversion of nature, chocolate is a testament to the divine accompanying of human action within the covenant of grace between God and humanity.
3. Chocolate is a christologically grounded reality. The Christ-event is an event which reconciled the world to God (2 Cor. 5:19). According to Ephesians, this event “has broken down the dividing wall” between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:14); according to Galatians, all of us are now “one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28); according to 2 Corinthians, “everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17). Chocolate is a manifestation of this reconciliation. Chocolate unites people from around the world in appreciation of its artistic and God-given taste; it carries on its own “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18) by resurrecting dead taste faculties and offering nougat-filled glimpses into the grace of God.
4. Chocolate is a concrete manifestation of the coming eschatological kingdom. In the coming kingdom, the Lord will reveal the new heavens and new earth in which “death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). Chocolate is a taste of the coming regnum dei. In anticipation of what God will accomplish for all, here and now chocolate “wipes every tear from their eyes.” Chocolate is thus a proleptic realization of the New Jerusalem, which “has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel” (Rev. 21:11). In its own small way, chocolate ushers us into the presence of the eschatological community, where we will gather around the messianic banquet table and feast together as the one people of God.
Posted by
The Fire and the Rose: A theology of chocolate
A Theology of Chocolate
1. Chocolate is a gift of God. Like rainbows, manna, tobacco, beer, and coffee, chocolate is an expression of divine favor toward humanity. “Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17).2. Chocolate is an event of human freedom accompanied by God (concursus dei) within the covenant of grace. Chocolate is not part of the original creation. The raw elements are found in nature, but human action had to bring these together in order to produce the glorious bar of chocolate that we now enjoy. While human autonomy often leads to the destruction and perversion of nature, chocolate is a testament to the divine accompanying of human action within the covenant of grace between God and humanity.
3. Chocolate is a christologically grounded reality. The Christ-event is an event which reconciled the world to God (2 Cor. 5:19). According to Ephesians, this event “has broken down the dividing wall” between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:14); according to Galatians, all of us are now “one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28); according to 2 Corinthians, “everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17). Chocolate is a manifestation of this reconciliation. Chocolate unites people from around the world in appreciation of its artistic and God-given taste; it carries on its own “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18) by resurrecting dead taste faculties and offering nougat-filled glimpses into the grace of God.
4. Chocolate is a concrete manifestation of the coming eschatological kingdom. In the coming kingdom, the Lord will reveal the new heavens and new earth in which “death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). Chocolate is a taste of the coming regnum dei. In anticipation of what God will accomplish for all, here and now chocolate “wipes every tear from their eyes.” Chocolate is thus a proleptic realization of the New Jerusalem, which “has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel” (Rev. 21:11). In its own small way, chocolate ushers us into the presence of the eschatological community, where we will gather around the messianic banquet table and feast together as the one people of God.
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