Lost in Translation

Today in Chia we hosted the annual men's meeting, and the topic was "every man's battle." We had five sessions, two taught by Pastor Jose, two taught by me, and an open forum for the last session.

I've been a little surprised and encouraged by the number of times I've been asked to speak lately. I'm not sure if people think of a missionary as instant "expert" or exactly why it is, but I am very happy to use the gift that God has given me. I think that I've literally been asked to speak on diverse topics by five different people from five different churches in the last month.

Pastor Jose had wanted to discuss this topic for a long time with the men of the association. We received a lot of positive feedback, more than anything from people who said, "Wow, this topic isn't normally talked about. It's nice to hear what the Bible has to say about it."

As far as my sessions went, I was very pleased. The first was about our wives as the true source of joy in our life. We talked about a biblical view of the sexual relationship in marriage, and how we should work to please our wives romantically as well. I was surprised that when I asked if there were questions a torrent poured out. I had to tell the men we would return to the questions later.

The second session that I led dealt with practical strategies to overcome these temptations. From making a covenant with my eyes not to look at a woman in a wrong way, to allowing my wife to pre-read and edit with scissors any magazine that may have questionable images or adds (even Nat'l Geographic falls into that category).

What encouraged me most was to have two people come up afterwards and tell me that they were greatly helped by what I had taught and that they would like my prayers for their victory in this area.

We were looking into car insurance this week, so I had to take our car to the shop for an in-depth review. The insurance agent, Cecilia, went with me, and we ended up talking about spiritual things for most of the hour we were at the shop.

She has many interesting views. She considers herself Catholic, but she doesn't agree with many of the teachings of the Catholic faith. What was very interesting was to hear her talk about an aunt who had converted to the Christian faith (interesting that in Spanish "Christian" and "Catholic" are not used interchangeably, whereas in English I think that most Catholics would consider themselves "Christians.")

She just shook her head and said, "I can't believe what she did. She gave up her identity. How can you be born a Catholic and not die a Catholic?" She was most upset by her niece's wedding. "It was just a normal guy with a normal suit and tie who officiated. It was held in a house, and there wasn't a fancy altar or anything. They should have just gone to the justice of the peace because that would have been just as meaningful. There was no one with authority. In contrast, in the Catholic church you have a real priest who has authority. He wears a special garment. He isn't just like all of the rest of us."

I tried to explain to her that it all depends on your authority. If the Bible is your authority, you will see things differently than if the "Church" is your authority. You will realize that the people are the church, not the building, and that the pastor actually does have an equal standing spiritually with any other person.

I tried to explain the Good News of God's grace, but I don't think that I got too far. It's difficult when someone has already heard the message, holds tightly to the traditions of their church, but has decided to believe only what makes sense to them.

At any rate, I learned some things during that conversation that will help me in the future.

We had some hail here in Bogota this last week. Just thought you might like to see the closest thing to a snow storm that a bogotano will ever see.