Wednesday, November 08, 2017

The lighthouse and atheist activism

Sunday we went to a church that is called El Faro, or The Lighthouse in Spanish. The service was very similar to church in Brazil, where I grew up, and I could worship along pretty well and understand almost all of the sermon. It helps when the preacher speaks slowly. :-) The church is located on a hill at the center of the city--everyone sees it as they drive by the main drag. Quite significant that the name of the church was El Faro, as they want to be a lighthouse in their relationships with people, but they are also located in a physical location that serves as a lighthouse! The church is not yet completed, but is building as they have the resources.
Walking up to church building.

Inside the church--missionaries are usually the last to leave!

Myself at the church overlooking the city in the background.

Dr. Bob Sluka, A Rocha Marine Biologist
After church, we had fish tacos (not myself, actually--I took a PB and J), and I hear they were delicious! It's a hotspot for many people on Sundays, including most of the TEAM missionaries! So I got to meet a few other TEAMers while there.

Later in the afternoon we went to meet with a British couple who's retired here, they've been diving their whole lives as well as commanding a yacht and taking people on expeditions. He even had a house full of museum quality items before there were rules about shipwrecks. Look at these portholes from old ships:
Portholes from ships that went down all over the world.

Can you imagine wearing one of these to explore the underwater world?

They even had their own "pirate" bird--this is Gnasher, he's 37 years old, just like me!

Gnasher was a great companion during our visit.
During our three hour conversation, we talked about many things related to stewardship of the environment, specifically in this area of La Paz. The couple we met are atheists, but they have continued to seek interaction with Steve & Lois, knowing full well that they are Christians and live it out. But that's the thing, being Christ followers doesn't mean we shun those unlike us, it means we should love them even more and truly seek relationship with them. We all agree on the challenge it is to bring this community to value what they have; the couple we met with were exasperated on the lack of progress, wondering what it would take... As Christians, we recognize that what it will take is a change of heart--for values to change, it has to come from the heart...and the King of heart changes is Jesus! So, this is what we pray for for this couple, as well as the Church to have a change of heart regarding stewardship of creation, as well as those who do not know our Savior yet and the reconciliation he brings to ALL of creation which allows us to joyfully care for creation as we point others to Jesus!

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