Our Mission to Colombia: Post #3: My First Church Service

So much can happen in two days!

In the picture above, some team members and I are standing inside the home of a woman (beside me in the photo) who encountered God in a powerful way the day before. Her home stands at the top of a steep dirt hill in the slums of Alfonso López, Cordoba, not far from the church where I had met her while ministering the day before (Sunday, January 14). 

On that Sunday morning, just two of us had been present: I was one; the other was Cristian (on the left in the photo above) who was serving as my translator. As we approached the area in our vehicle, we saw the signs of poverty everywhere. Makeshift homes constructed with whatever materials were available to people. Curtains for doors and windows. The sight and smell of human waste running down the side of the hilly dirt road. Dogs everywhere, wandering about. We drove part of the way into the community but had to exit the car when we could go no further, due to the large potholes and difficult terrain. 

We met the pastors as we exited, a husband and wife couple, and followed them up the hill toward the church, waving at curious onlookers sitting outside their houses as we ascended. 

The church was a modest but adequate and clean space. The pastora (the woman pastor) took the lead in speaking with us and in leading the service. Before the service began, she had arranged for large fruit bowls to be brought to Cristian and me. What a lovely and sacrificial gift – a true honour! We ate with gratitude and humility as we took in this gracious act of hospitality.

The service began with the pastora giving a passionate and lengthy prayer and then a lively worship time followed. The only instruments were percussion (some drums, a tambourine, and something like a guacharaca but made of metal) and voices, yet the worship was jubilant, fervent, and contagious! I could not understand the lyrics (mostly), but the language of heartfelt worship is universal, and it brought me to tears. There were 30-35 people in attendance – not a huge gathering, but the place felt full and expectant.

Left: The worship team, leading the congregational singing. The woman to the left of the podium is the pastora. Right: A photo taken after the main part of the service; some people are outside at this point.

My role in the service was to train the church in healing, evangelism, and Bible study ministries. The training included both teaching and participation, so that people could try out and practice the various ministry activities after each teaching session. I had asked Cristian if he wanted to teach any of the sessions himself, but he wasn’t yet comfortable with that and preferred to stick with translating for the time being. Many who came on this trip, both North American missionaries and Colombian translator-missionaries, had not done this kind of ministry and teaching before. It was really inspiring to see that, as time progressed, everyone was engaged and excited to do more. Many who were initially reticent were speaking and preaching powerfully as they took steps of faith, which God rewarded by moving hearts and changing lives. In fact, when opportunities arose and the leaders asked for volunteers, there were often more volunteers than specific ministry spots. A wonderful ‘problem’ to have!

The healing portion of the training time was powerful beyond my expectations. As part of the training, congregants practiced praying for each other in groups of three. Those needing healing shared their maladies and others laid hands on them and prayed for them. Of the 30-35 people gathered, about 20 people reported experiencing healing for various things, mostly related to injuries and pain. those who reported being healed said that they experienced 70% or higher improvement in their condition(s). It was quite an awesome and overwhelming response!

I need to stop at this point to confess my own scepticism about some of this (just being honest here 😊). I wonder: how much of this is genuine healing, where God moved in power to bring a permanent improvement and alleviation of suffering and pain to his people? How much of it is an emotional response, where people report (i.e., project) experiences that are based on their own expectations? Or their desire to show a positive response to God and to the mission team? How much of it is a placebo effect? (Placebo effects can be quite powerful in terms of their impact on human subjects.) I confess that I don’t really know. My suspicion is that the numbers represent a mixture of all of the above.

As I’ve reflected on this theologically, three things have come to mind. First, in the New Testament (and especially the gospels and Acts), amazing and miraculous things do seem to happen when people come to God/Jesus expectantly and in faith. This is not to say that people who are not healed lack sufficient faith and are thus blameworthy in some sense (although Mark 6:5 complicates this a little bit). Indeed, true faith is in the God who heals, not in our own faith. Nevertheless, faith and expectation seem to be necessary ingredients to healing and other miracles. 

Second, part of my scepticism arises because God seems to do many more minor works of healing than dramatic ones. I’m not sure why this is. It’s occurred to me, however, that what God most wants to give to us is His very Self in the person of his Holy Spirit, moving and dwelling within us. What appear to us to be relatively minor works of healing, cleansing, deliverance, and restoration often bring great comfort and encouragement to those who receive them. They receive healing, but more importantly, they receive God Himself, personally. Who am I to question that? And since God works both directly (miraculously) and by secondary means and causes (‘naturally’), perhaps ‘God working’ and (even) the placebo effect are not necessarily mutually exclusive categories or events? God is not only in the gaps; God is the God of the whole show (to paraphrase Bonhoeffer). I’m not trying here to reduce everything to the ‘natural,’ but rather to say that God by His Spirit works to infuse everything – “all things” – for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

Finally, our team (myself included) witnessed many dramatic healings throughout the trip, miraculous interventions for which ‘natural’ explanations are highly improbable. We called these ‘notable healings’ to distinguish them from the more common healings we witnessed. These were significant and life-changing gifts from God. They were clear signs of God’s power and presence, and – as in the gospels – they pointed to the manifestation of God’s kingdom in our midst. I believe that God performed these wonders to demonstrate His love to those He healed (and to all who were witnesses) and to authenticate His work in our midst, both in what was clearly miraculous and in what might be regarded as more ambiguous. I will share some of these dramatic stories in another post (my son, Samuel, actually got to be part of one of the most dramatic healings our team witnessed).

But now, back to the old woman pictured at the top of this post. God did something in her life that turned out to be a blessing both to her and to me. 

After the healing time, I asked if there were a few people who wanted to share a testimony about how God had healed them. This woman came forward excitedly, with both hands up in the air, and shared with all who were gathered (via Cristian the translator) what had happened to her. She shared that she had been suffering for a long time with severe back and neck pain, which made it difficult for her to walk and thus to get to church. So, when she does come to church, she requires help from others to support her to make the journey. (Recall that she lives in a little shack at the top of a steep, dirt hill). She had not been planning to attend church that Sunday, but something changed her mind. She explained: When she saw me walking up to the church that morning, she recognized me immediately because she had seen me in a dream the night before. In response to the dream, she knew she needed to attend church that day. And then God healed her (seemingly completely) of her back and neck pain. Wow! “Thank, you,” I said. “You just increased and encouraged my faith!”

The picture at the top of this post is from the next day (the Monday), when Cristian and me – along with two other team members – were sent back to the church to accompany their people into the local community to do ministry and outreach. I asked her how she was feeling. A big smile lit up her face and she raised her arms high and jumped up and down, thanking God. She really wanted our group to see and come into her house, which is both her home and her place of work (she sells second-hand clothing, which you can see hanging in the background). 

We also had the opportunity to meet her son and his friend, both looking to be in their early to mid-twenties. I shared a brief testimony with them and my team-mate Harmen (the other white dude in the photo) shared the gospel with them.

What an amazing couple of days of ministry and mission! Though, ‘officially,’ I was the minister and missionary, I was also very much a recipient of ministry and mission, as God worked through these precious people to impact me in deep and unexpected ways. 

As the missionary-theologian Lesslie Newbigin liked to emphasize in his writings, genuine mission is always a mutual, two-way exchange, wherein people encounter God at work together, in and through each other through the sharing of the gospel and the diverse, mutually edifying gifts of the Spirit of Jesus. What a gift and a privilege it is to be included together in God’s work!