A New Way

The word “Novas” means a new way.  What does a new way of life look like? Jesus
gave a pretty good example.  As
Christians, I think we focus our time on “interpreting” his words and what they
mean for us today instead of actually doing them – life is more comfortable
that way.  

     There is something magic that happens when you fall so in
love with Jesus that you can no longer stand sitting around and talking about
him; you want to show him to the world!!!  It started Sun. night, when many in the group
shared their frustrations – life here is still too
“comfortable” compared to the way Jesus did things. Little did we know that our
leaders were meeting and praying for the Spirit to guide our every step into a
new way of living – forget schedules!  And so I awoke Tues. morning at 5 am to the
sound of my leader, Tana, telling me to grab breakfast (bread and a hardboiled
egg) and be ready to go in 5 minutes.

     Every morning started with grabbing for clothes in the dark,
rushing to get some coffee, and driving to a park in Matamoros for an hour or
two of quite time with the Father.  Each
day of ministry was based off Jesus’ actions and teachings, Spirit led, and
tiring. Jesus did much of his miracles “on the way” versus structured ministry
– so we walked, talked (and some hand motions because I don’t know everything
in Spanish), taught, prayed, worked to serve the needs of the people we met,
fed people, and walked some more. 

     I could go on with stories from this week, so I will focus
on one.  On Wed. our leaders shared the
passage in John Chapter 6 about how Jesus is the Bread of Life. The 30 of us
divided into two groups, and were told to choose between making sandwiches to
feed people later that night or planning and cooking a meal on our own expense.
Of course we decided to cook!!! We handmade tortillas filled with rice and
beans; cookies for dessert. That night, we got another surprise. They had no
one for us to feed – so we piled into a van and prayed for the Spirit to direct
us. We ended up at a park near the hospital. I only talked to one person – God
arranged the perfect meeting right away so I wouldn’t have to walk very far (I
was already exhausted!) His name was Jose Antonio, and he had moved around in
the U.S. for a while living in Mexican ghettos. He now commutes from Matamoros
to Brownsville, Texas, everyday to work. He knew some English, and we knew some
Spanish, so we got to help each other.  We talked a lot about his life and his
experience with the church. He didn’t understand why the church is so divided
and so competitive amongst itself. The idea that we did not come in the name of
a church, but in the name of Jesus Christ fascinated him. His wife is Mormon
and he is not allowed to go with her to their services, so he doesn’t have
people to disciple him. He said that Mormon missionaries come to visit him and
his family all the time, but there was something different about us – we were
eager, we tried to speak his language, and we were passionate about our
Message. We spoke truth into his life and prayed with him. I pray that he
doesn’t continue to rest in his faith but strives to grow closer to God and
finds people who will go the journey with him.

I want to end with a quote that really made me think this
week: “There are a lot of people who talk about Jesus, but there are few who
talk like him.”