Meeting needs with prayer & oranges.

          I've invited people to my house after church before, but i've never invited people to my house for church until today.  Every third Sunday of the month we open our program/home and have church for anyone who will come.  A lot of work goes into this process and set-up. Unfortunately, since i was so involved in the service by setting up, playing guitar with the worship team, giving my testimony, etc., i wasn't able to take many pictures, but as you can see we have a few.

          What you are seeing is a free service for the community. When you live in a city where some sections only have running water every two days, it's so easy to become overwhelmed and even discouraged by the need that surrounds you.  You begin to wonder if your efforts are even going to scratch the surface let alone "make a difference."  You begin to doubt what can be tangibly done to meet peoples needs when you don't really have the resources to meet all of your own. However, if we look at what we have at our immediate disposal that is free of charge, we quickly begin to realize that we have a lot to offer a community in desperate circumstances.  We have a space, 4 walls, which might not be "free" but the bills are paid so far this month.  In these walls we have chairs where people can sit and rest.  While they are resting, some of us have the ability to deliver an encouraging word, build them up, make them laugh, and give them hope.  We have instruments and voices accompanied by the talents behind them at whatever level we have cultivated them.  Music takes people to another place, beyond their circumstance and sometimes even their bodies.  I've always thought that music is the closest you can get to heaven on earth, and it's free to play music.  So you can see, with no financial investment we still have so much to work with.  And when we put all those things in God's hands and watch Him move, nothing short of miracles happen every day.

     Prayer is free.  Everything I've just described all leads to this, the "altar call." This is where people are invited to leave their seats and come to God in prayer.  We have people here who are willing to pray with anyone in need. In prayer people come and cry out to God, often loudly and in tears, to express their praise, sorrow, anger, thanksgiving, confusion, and doubt.  All the music, testimonies, and exhortation, sets the stage and leads to this.  A true encounter with their creator, surrounded by others sharing the same experience, praying with and for them, and being changed forever in the process.  And all this happened tonight, for free, in a little concrete room, in the heart of Guatemala city.
     When the music and prayers were over, Chris, myself, and the guys passed out oranges and everyone took at least a few.  No one was in a hurry to go anywhere.  Everyone sat and enjoyed their oranges and fellowshipped with one another.  There was great energy in the room.  Spirits were lifted, burdens were laid down at the altar and the oranges were sweet, juicy, and free.  When people eventually did leave, they did so as different people, transformed by their encounter through prayer.

     Phillipians 4:6-7  "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.  Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds...."
     Too many times, even Christians look at prayer as a last resort.  You will hear people say things like, "Well, I guess all we can do is pray."  Or we will wait till our circumstance get so bad that we completely run out of all options and we decide it's time to pray.  Tonight reaffirmed for me that prayer is the most important thing you can do, and that it's a good place to finish, but an even better place to start.  Prayer is merely human communication with God that express our feelings. The further into prayer you get, God starts speaking things back into your heart, mind and spirit.  Maybe God wants to give you a new vision for a room, talent, or some fruit you have lying around the house that can be used to change someone's life forever.