Monteria Reflections

I thought I would share a bit about this morning.

The church where I went to preach was for the pastor who is the president for the region. It is a new church plant. The church where we held our meetings is in the middle of the city. It sets back from the street and is pretty large and tiled. It had air conditioning. This new church plant was nothing like where the conference was held. We left the main road and traveled across bumpy dirt road until we pulled up in front of a couple of cement brick walls with a tin roof and dirt floors.

When the pastor, Luis, decided to plant this church, he and his family left a comfortable apartment and moved into a small room at the back of the church sanctuary. Eventually, as they continue to grow and build, they will add an apartment above and live there. No toilet…fairly primitive.

The people began to gather and the music began to play loudly through the speakers. They used a cd and sang along with it with great joy and enthusiasm. It was then I sensed The Lord whisper to my heart that He was answering a desire of my heart. He said, “I brought you back to Jabaroon.”

With all the trips The Lord has allowed me to take –one of my favorites was to preach in a UN refugee camp just above Khartoum. The people had no shelter from the sun/heat, they had to rely on twice daily rations of water and food from UN workers, and circumstances were pretty dire. When I had arrived in Jabaroon, they had already been worshiping for over an hour. I didn’t know I would preach until I arrived. The Lord whispered to my heart there—” I brought you out here to introduce you to some of My favorite people. It wasn’t about what I brought to them–they brought so much to me.

When Jesus is all you have, you radiate a lot of Jesus. So, this morning when He whispers that He knew my desire about Jabaroon, I began to weep for joy. Joy is what I experienced this morning as I shared fellowship with this church. I taught about getting my joy back, and how the enemy attempts to fill our well of living water in with dirt (taken from Genesis –story of contention for wells with the Philistines). It was just the right word, and I feel like The Lord is giving me much more that I need to steward in this message.

I took many pictures and will show them later.

We all regrouped back at the house that was hosting us, had lunch and then left for the airport. I am currently flying over the mountains on my way back to Medellin. Tomorrow, late afternoon we will arrive in Trapeche–location for the next conference we are speaking at. It is good to have later start tomorrow.

I will have the opportunity to reconnect with a woman I became friends with named Magdalena. She took the Sonship study at our last school in Medellin, and she and her husband began to plant a church among unbelievers, using this material. She has been on our website, tween2worlds, for clues about how to do church the way we do. She is anxious for more of the Sonship study to get translated….she just keeps repeating what they already have.They start new churches among unbelievers, raise them up with the Sonship study, then plant another. More joy. Well, we have arrived back in Medellin at the Sanders house. We will head out soon for some ‘medicine’ [Dan’s note: In the Mayhew house, “medicine” is the code word for “ice cream” 🙂 ]. 

I love you.
Blessings, Jody

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