Monday, June 28, 2010

Depression and Hope

It has been a tough first year in charge of the church in Ciudad Nueva. There have been some really great moments and some days that just take it out of me, days when I could get on a boat in the middle of a storm and fall asleep.

These last couple weeks have been just that for me.

We have a new family that has been coming every week the last month and they are great. We have two single moms that are getting more and more involved in the church and going to seminary classes. We have the husband of a long time member beginning to come more faithfully and showing a lot more interest since we had a men only BBQ the day before Father's day, and he wants to be involved in our house visit ministry and study at seminary next semester.

We have also had two members get into a really bad fight and are having a real hard time reconciling. That can be tough on a small church. There is a member who has caused a lot of strife with stupid comments at inappropriate times. We had a total of 6 men at our Father's day service that we had to start an hour late because there were only 6 people at the scheduled service time. Our youth group has practically vanished within 6 weeks and we have not been able to pinpoint why. Our musicians were from Local Central and they no longer will be playing for us...but I kind of like singing to a CD.

Ups and downs. Moments of great joy and great sadness. It seems each time that something goes really bad God shows a little spark of hope. We know that this is a new year with a lot of things that will change. Our hope is that we can now follow Jesus' example of multiplying and not adding members. We are dedicating to a small group of men and women to equip and empower them to take of ministries responsibly. It is just the seed and I know that God will cause it to grow...but we are so impatient to want to see the fruits sometimes.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

1 comment:

  1. Hey Brian, It is good to hear that Simplified is not the only church going through the ups and downs. 2 months ago we had new people coming, unchurched people and we were very excited. They told us how much they liked the church, one family I met with the husband for lunch because he had questions. He was very pleased with the answers and how we were approaching doing church. Like the flick of a switch they just stopped coming. I see the husband at the gym still friendly but now just not interested. Another family is on verge of divorce and it doesn't look like reconciliation is any where close. Then about a month ago we picked up a new family and they seemed very engaged in all that is going on. So I understand where you are. Somewhere in all of this I keep hearing the Lord say "trust me." Along with the scripture from John 12:32 "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." So keep the faith and keep lifting up the name of Jesus the name above all names.

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