Stories & Thoughts

When I first traveled to meet the group, I was wondering what I was getting into. It was like going back 100 years in American history. Here are some descriptions to give you a feel for it. At dinner, the men ate at a separate table from the women. Most women wore their hair up in a net/bun. In the meeting on Sunday, we sang a few hymns (old hymns...some of which I knew), some of the men, starting with the older men, got up and read some scripture and/or shared what they had been doing. There was a section for men and a section for women generally speaking, but there were some who mixed in a third section. We had communion afterwards, followed by lunch. The women took care of all the food and children, while the men had other meetings.

The style of many things this group does is from what would be called in America "The Brethren" or something like that.

They don't seem to be overly legalistic about things like hair, or dress, or seating. There are no titles, no membership. When they preach the gospel, they don't ask for money or for anyone to join a church. They feel that God will draw the Christians together. Those who hear the gospel and contact them, they will send them a free bible.

They definitely believe Jesus is the son of God and died for our sins and was raised on the third day. I never heard anything contrary to scripture...and I heard quite a bit. Everyone liked to talk about sharing the gospel and what the gospel was.

I heard a story of a lady who walked by one of their signs every day (the sign said something like "Jesus is the bread of life") and the Holy Spirit drew her to Christ.

The folks have a few businesses and have a good reputation in the business community. They have many banks wanting to lend them money. They have a profitable software business, and have recently started some sort of a film/sound/animation production house.

If you read this MorningStar word of the week (which happened to come out while I was visiting) it talks about different phases of disaster relief and how the first (but not only) phase is simple rescue and how this relates to the church. The group I visited seems to be focused (dare I say stuck?) on the first phase. Are they simply walking in phase 1 as God has told them? Is that their calling? Is this just a center for evangelism that God has raised up and those who should be sheparding have failed to come? Should shepards come from this group as well? Is it just not the right timing? I have lots of questions, but I dare not judge them. They are getting the gospel out much more than I. Do we truly believe that folks around us are going to hell? Do we truly want to see them come to know Jesus and have eternal life?

Can the "American" life of "stuff" and running around busy doing everything but ministering to those around us be good? These folks own a school for non-christians that they keep up nicely...a new building and a very nice campus, so they can charge good money and put that money for evangelism, while their own kids are meeting in a old hospital that was built before the war. Would we do anything like that in the US? Their kids are not suffering...they are being taught and are learning quite well. They are learning that stuff doesn't matter and that we should be laying treasures up in heaven.

These folks work together...have problems together...find solutions together. They eat together, play together, learn together, and spread the gospel together. Do we do anything together anymore? Do we have strong relationships with other families? In the Sunday school class that Kerri and I taught last year, none of the kids went to the same school during the week and they just didn't know each other. We rarely work with someone we worship with. Wouldn't it be nice to work with brothers and sisters, share in problems, and minister to each other? What have we become? Are we so caught up in the ways of this world that we are dying due to our lack of being connected to the body of Christ? Not that the church is our source of strength...God alone should be our strength, but God does use us to help each other and bear each others burdens. We are His body...all interconnected and linked to the head, which is Christ. He is the vine, we are the branches.

Let us strive to love one another as Christ commanded. Let us consider our lives and ask God to work out our selfishness and love for things of this world and concentrate more on eternal things...the lives of those around us.

--David