The Mission Diaries

A new church has been planted in Mexico. Welcome, Cuautla Church of Christ! In 1999 the Mexico City church planted Cuernavaca, the first church in the state of Morelos. Then in 2003, the Mexico City and Cuernavaca churches jointly planted a church in Acapulco (Guerrero). In December of 2009, a team of missionaries went from Cuernavaca to Cuautla, second largest city in the state of Morelos. At the church’s first service on February 7, about 200 visitors came, with 35 new Bible studies set up! The brothers and sisters in Mexico continue to inspire us with their mission-focused hearts.

J De Anda

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I was standing by the glass door of our family room, praying. I looked up and took notice of the clear blue sky with a cloud here or there. It was a really beautiful day, particularly after several weeks of rainy days, an unusual occurence here in Southern California. I thanked God for giving us a beautiful day … but I stopped. Yes, we had a beautiful day here, but what about other places? With weather patterns being what they are, and with people spread out all over the planet, it wasn’t highly probable that everyone was waking up to this so-called beautiful day. At that same moment, someone somewhere was probably looking at a cold, dreary morning with overcast skies that promised a few more inches of snow. Somewhere else it may have been a hot and humid day. I remember that February used to be the worst month for pollution in Mexico City, because of a phenomenon called thermal inversion which basically compressed the smog into a dense, toxic, low-altitude layer.

So I thought, if I thank God for giving me a beautiful day, what about all those people who didn’t wake up to the same kind of day? Did God not give them the same gift? Did God decide who was going to benefit from beautiful weather that morning and who was going to end up with rotten weather?

I don’t think so. God created the earth, and with it He set up the physical laws that determine the distribution of heat, and moisture, and air pressure, and all those intricate things that produce what we call weather. Weather is what it is. God doesn’t need to micromanage it every second of every day, and especially not for my exclusive enjoyment. So I decided to change my prayer, because I don’t think God’s gift is a “beautiful day.” I think his gift is the faith that allows us to go through each day, whether it’s beautiful or not.

J De Anda

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I’d like to share with our readers some thoughts from the book “The Gospel According to Job” by Mike Mason. In it the author says and I paraphrase: In most religions, spiritual progress is represented by the arduous path that we have to climb to reach the top of a mountain. The route is difficult, treacherous, almost impassable. This pervasive image projects the impression that spiritual progress is a task that is only achieved by few, and only through this process of individual effort. As a consequence, sometimes we view spiritual progress as a human achievement, much like graduation or promotion or winning the heart of the person you love.

However, the Bible presents the path of righteousness with a totally different metaphor: a level path.

Isaiah 26:7 The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth

Isaiah 40:4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain

I imagine that, most of Israel’s land being rough and uneven, with hills, mountains, and cliffs all over the place, and relatively small or narrow plains and valleys, the image of a level path or level ground represents more accurately God’s work of salvation. Righteousness is not attained by strenuous human effort. It is attained by staying on the path that God has made for us!

The author even points out that Jesus had a solution for mountains, and I quote: “Why go to all the trouble of climbing a mountain if by faith you can have it thrown into the sea (see Mark 11:23)?”

J De Anda

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Recently the Turning Point ministry of the Los Angeles Church began a fundraising program called “Mustaches for El Salvador”. Brothers commited themselves to raising money for the San Salvador Church while growing a mustache, and not shaving it until they had met their fundraising goal.

Please go to this link for the humorous response of the disciples in the San Salvador Church :-)

J De Anda

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