following Christ

Well, I´m back in Tlaxiaco after a really great weekend. As a group of interns plus the four full-time church planting members we drove about 3 hours through the mountains to a little "camp" where we fasted, prayed, and spent lots of really great time in silence and solitude with the Lord. The idea of the weekend was death to self, and that is exactly what we did. We examined unconfessed sin in our lives, and then we experienced the freedom of forgiveness. We worshiped, we enjoyed the beauty of God´s creation, and we rested in the presence of the Lord. I finally was able to take a few pictures because there weren´t Mexicans around (we have to be careful of what we take pictures of and when we take them because most of the people here really don´t understand it), but I forget my USB cable today to upload them. Hopefully I will be able to post them soon, because both the time at the camp and the ride there were absolutely beautiful. (The only thing I would have changed were the roads, but praise God, none of us got sick!)

Lets see... what else is there to talk about.

My dad wanted to know what kind of things I say to people here... like how relational evangelism works... so here you are, Dad, this is for you:

Pretty much for most of the afternoons here we do what is called relational evangelism. So really, I am in Mexico to make friends, which if you ask me is pretty sweet. Sometimes it can be frustrating when I lack the Spanish to really say what I want to say, but in those times I am trusting that the Spirit of the Lord is working through my weaknesses. More than anything I want my entire life here to be a testimony of the love of the Lord.

Religion in Tlaxiaco, the Mixteca, and really all of southern Mexico is incredibly important. The problem is that the Catholicism here has become incredibly distorted, and is now a really sad mix of animism and Catholicism. The Christian church here also has its issues. Many foreign missionaries have come throughout the years and planted "churches" in the form of buildings, but because so much of what they taught was Christianity within the Western culture, the people here did not understand it. The Mexicans have not been allowed to be Christians and Mexicans at the same time, which absolutely breaks my heart, and I know breaks the heart of the Lord as well. The few Christians that are here have turned Christianity into complete legalism, and like the Catholics here they do not get to experience a life-giving and life-sustaining relationship with the Lord. The other part of the Christian churches here that tears me apart is the divisions within the Church. For the Mexican Christians here, you are your denomination. Pentacostals say that Baptists are a cult. Baptists say that Pentacostals are not Christians. The have completely grabbed onto Christianity as a religion within their denomination, but they fail to see it as a relationship.

Because of all of this, the word Christian here has really strange conotations to the other Mexicans. Most of them know or have heard of a few Christians, but the Christianity here is so foreign and strange that they really want nothing to do with it. So instead of calling myself a Christian, I call myself a follower of Christ. When people ask me what that means, I will tell them that I read the Bible and I put it into practice in my life. Sometimes I will try to explain that in the Bible the word Christian really meant "little Christ," and that daily I try to live as Christ would live. Sometimes people will ask what the difference is with Christianity, and I explain that many Christians here have lots of rules and regulations that don´t come from God, but that come from man. I say that when you follow Christ, it isn´t a religion with a lot of rules, but it is a relationship. Other than that, the rest is up to the Spirit. I have been praying that I meet people here who are thirsty for something new, and that they would be curious enough to ask questions. The really exciting part is that it is happening!

Sometimes, it is easy to get frustrated. My Spanish abilites really limit what I can say, but the fact that I am only here for 6 more weeks limits things more. I am continously reminding myself that while what I can do is really limited, what the Lord can do is limitless. I think I am here to plant seeds this summer, so that is what I am doing. I am scattering as many seeds as I can in culturally appropriate ways, and then I will continue to keep praying that more people come along to water the seeds, and even more so that the Lord would make the seeds grow and flourish. I pray that the seeds that are being planted right now would one day grow and grow, planting new seeds as they go.

All for Him,
Elizabeth