Iglesia de Cristo

Day 160 (Written Sunday May 20) ~ Today I attended a church where they spoke in tongues, or at least it was tongues to me. No, I wasn’t at a Pentecostal church, I visited the Spanish speaking congregation of the church of Christ just south of my home. My good friend and co-worker Jack Farber had invited me to come and visit with him so we did this afternoon. The congregation meets in what is called the “Ortega Camp” (so named because Mr. Ortega bought and set up dozens of old mobile homes which he rents out to Hispanic immigrant workers at Coggins Farm). Me, Po and the Oldest joined rode with Panama Jack out to the church at 3:00 pm. If I had been blindfolded for the journey, when you opened my eyes I would have believed I was in Mexico. Their is an entire Hispanic community that lives and works in this camp, making it an ideal location for a congregation. Most of the people in this camp are poor, extremely hard working and desperately needing the Gospel. I couldn’t help but think that Latin American Missions is taking the Gospel all over Central and South America, but there are Latin souls right here in our community that can be reached as well. Two precious souls, Bill and Lydia Naylor, are the lifeblood of this congregation currently. Bill can read, but does not speak Spanish and Lydia is fluent. She teaches a children’s class and Bill leads singing. My boys and I sang along with every song he lead (we had a song book), and although we don’t speak Spanish (yet), we recognized what songs we were singing by the tune. Panama Jack did the preaching. Unlike our mission trips, there was no translator, so we had to really work to understand what Jack was preaching (we know enough words to ‘get the gist’ of what he was saying). He preached about sin and its consequences. After worship, we said goodbye, or adios and buenos tardes, and loaded in the truck to go to Forrest Park for our evening worship. It was an uplifting day for our family. We worshipped with brethren who do not speak our language, but share our faith and have the same Lord. What a blessing. I will not give the details, but amazingly one of the men there put in his contribution and let me say it was far, far more than the average church member gives. I will almost guarantee you he gave not of his excess but sacrificially. It only made me long for the days when we will leave for Central America even more. Please keep this little congregation in your prayers. There is an entire community of people who could be saved and served through this effort. They are small in number, small in funds, but huge in potential.