The Church

Recently we changed churches here in La Ceiba.  We are now attending a small Baptist church with my husband's family and it has been really good.  I liked our last church as well, but there is something about this small community that I really love.

I was so challenged yesterday by this family of believers as we arrived at church at 9:15am to the power going out.  Void of AC and fans, the building was HOT!  And even though it was a scheduled outage and people knew and could have stayed home, the building was just as full as it was the week before.  People still listened and just sat closer to the front to be able to hear the pastor better as he has a soft voice.  We sang some old faithful worship songs acapella as we wiped sweat off of our foreheads.  And the nice lady sitting next to me shared her little fan with me the whole service since I was unprepared.  My babies were passed around and loved on, even though they are little ovens when its hot.  And I probably had the worst attitude in the place.

I've been challenged to consider recently what church is really about.  I won't open that whole discussion, because I don't have the answers.  But I can say this... church can "do" a lot of things.  And they are great things.  Churches should DO.  We are called to that.  And yet, getting caught up in the doing can make us lose of sight of simply studying God's Word.  I'm to a point where I can give up a lot of the benefits of church to just sit under someone reading and speaking directly from God's Word.

So in our little church we sing to a tape.  Not ideal.  Its hot sometimes.  Boo.  I don't agree with everything the pastor says all the time.  No surprise.

In our church we read A LOT of scripture.  Responsive readings are just straight Scripture.  Sunday school is just reading through verses and talking about them.  The sermon is reading through verses and talking about them.

And I like it.

Never say I can't... always say I'll try

When I was a kid I went to these basketball camps with a group called Networks.  Well, more than just went :)  I coached for them for a little while and spent my high school summers getting up super early to go work out and train for two hours before starting my day.  But at Networks there were some rules they made the kids say at camp before getting started.  One of them was this...

Never say "I can't" always say "I'll try"

I've known Y for almost four years now and she is one of the most Eeyore-like personalities.  She is always down on herself and convinced that she isn't able to do things she wants to do.  The words "I can't" have been a constant coming out of her mouth.  The last four years have been full of encouragement and gentle and not so gentle pushes from myself and the house moms to TRY!  And she has been really successful.

The other night I was at her house while she was helping her daughter with homework and J's refrain was the same.  "I can't"  She was supposed to be writing upper and lowercase As in her handwriting book and it was just hard for her.  But I LOVED Y's response.  "No J, remember what I told you.  We erased I can't from our vocabulary. You can do it.  I'll help you.  We'll do it together.  Let's try it.  Great job!"

Wow... where did she come from?

She told me later that she is committed to seeing her daughter not have the same self-esteem struggles that she has had and she knows that it starts with encouraging her to try and see herself be successful.

God is changing generations..... :)