DAY 3.
Today was a rather interesting and packed Sunday. We started
off the day meeting our teammates from Alabama for the first time and eating a
great breakfast that Aunt Edith & the Kitchen Crew prepared for us. We would
end up spending the rest of the day with these Alabamans, allowing us to get to
know each other better before we embark on our journey to serve together in VBS
and with our construction projects.
I’ve talked to most of the Alabamans a bit, but there was
one guy, Marlan, who really stood out to me because he knew Mandarin and studied
abroad in Taiwan at Tai Zhong for 9 months. During our free time, I was also
impressed by how intense Marlan is. He instantly became a fearful adversary in
the game of Ultimate Ninja and was also an invaluable
teammate when rallying a volleyball.
The Alabaman group was all from the same small group in Birmingham,
and their church played a vital part in planting Belize Chinese Christian
Church, where we are staying. In fact, one of their members was a founder of
the BCCC. It is such a cool and unique experience to have the opportunity to partner
with them as well as the local Belizean ministry, Belize Camping Experience.
Rewinding back a bit, we attended two churches today. Soon
after breakfast, we went to Lake Independence Baptist Church together, where
Pastor Rocke preached. Before the service started, he went up to me as well as
a few new visitors, hospitably welcoming us to the church. Rock’s sermon posed
a self-reflective question that at first seemed confusing and rather unspecific:
“What kind of member are you?” However, Rocke craftily used this question to challenge
us to exemplify the characteristics of a biblical member rather than just a
member who had cognitive dissonance of beliefs and character.
Rocke also reminded us that we, as a church, are the body of
Christ so must think about “one another/each other” and not just ourselves. With
a few different demonstrations that showed how tasks are often more efficient
and easier when we are unified as a team, Rock encouraged us to be Biblical
members in our church and beyond. Some of the actions we can take to be a
Biblical member are praying for one another, admonishing one another,
encouraging each other, and carrying each other’s burdens. I thought it was a
beautiful message that is applicable to any church and something we should
strive for in the here and now, not just hoping to see in heaven.
In the afternoon, we attended our second church service at
BCCC, where Pastor Brian preached about remembering our core identity and
legitimate questions we can ask when discerning the relationships we have with
others. David’s heart-felt reflection in Psalm 139 presents his thoughts of how
he relates with God. There are four questions he seemed to answer in his psalm
that are applicable to guiding through our own thoughts when discerning relationships:
-
“Who are you to me?”
-
“How present will you be in my life?”
-
“Who am I to you?”
-
“How should I respond after answering these
questions?”
Ultimately, Pastor Brian’s presentation of this psalm as
well as his commentary reminded me to remember my core identity in God in the
midst of the many different expectations the world has for me. From previous
readings of Psalm 139, David’s reflection that we are “fearfully and
wonderfully made” has stuck with me and has been a powerful encouragement in my
life, and today’s revisit was definitely not an exception. Though, I may need
to reflect more of my own answer to the fourth question, I think Pastor Brian’s
rephrasing of Psalm 139 into Jeopardy/question
form has led me into asking the right question going forward in my life.
One characteristic that made both church services rather
special and also happened to be one of the reasons I wanted to go to Belize was
that they were multicultural experiences. The first was a prominently Black
church that had a different style of worship and service than what I am used to.
The BCCC service was also rather multicultural, having Pastor Brian speak in
English while our ambassador Jerry translated Brian’s words into Mandarin. I am
looking forward to more of these multicultural experiences throughout this trip
and hope that the experiences will further shape my world view as well as how I
connect with others.
Tomorrow, we are finally beginning our construction projects
as well as our VBS. A few prayer requests going forward are for safety from the
heat & bugs, being energized to do good work & to handle potentially
~200 kids, deeply connecting with the people we are serving, and being open to
small opportunities.
No comments:
Post a Comment