March 10, 2003

One of the people who have begun to notice this baby, a lady of many years of service in another church in town, was amazed when she found out that Lamberto, who teaches, leads in the sharing of the Lord's Supper, and baptizes, has only been a believer for a year and a half,. And then she shook her head, as if to be rid of cobwebs, and contemplatively said "Well, that's what they did in the early church, no?" 

The simple answer is "yes". How did Paul have the nerve to set up churches all around the north of the Mediterranean, leaving them often after only months of initial contact, with their own leaders? Ones who could baptize new believers, remember Christ's sacrifice every first day of the week, and teach from the little they had learned, and could glean from the only Scripture of their day, the Old Testament. And, Paul seems to expect them to keep this process of extension going, passing on what they had received. Without him.

 The only conceivable way to understand Paul is to tune into his profound trust that this was God's church and that He, through the Holy Spirit, would preserve it. The gates of hell cannot prevail against us. We are most sustained when we are free to respond to our Father in simple obedience. Baby believers and baby churches, just like those in the first throes of romantic love, long to fulfill the desires of their beloved. We have to be so careful at that very moment, since the way we show them will forever form them. How easy it is to give them the patterns we were molded in, the traditions that reflect centuries of rich history unfolding in a very different environment. And they would gladly take our lead, and strive endlessly to walk a path trod hard by others feet. Then, like real babies, they would need my hand to hold them up, to smooth their stumbling, and I would never be able to leave them for dozens of years, perhaps hundreds. Can we shake off the cobwebs, and remember that Paul left them after months, or at the most a few short years? 

It is beautiful to walk alongside this baby, and know that she is growing. It is visible through stronger confidence in leading worship, a broader range of songs, wider ranging prayers, and clearer teachings. Their members visit others of their community, sharing a simple and relevant Gospel, not something pre-packaged. Lamberto will soon baptize a Mixtec family on the other side of town, and from them will spring another baby church, connected to a whole different region out in the Mixtec Mountains. A place where in over a dozen villages there has never been known any message of God's grace to sinners. Now, there will be a seed that has everything it needs to be blown lightly through that area, taking root wherever there is soil to receive it, maturing and adapting to its own conditions. So that it too might reproduce in even further places. 

Together with their efforts, our own continue to yield fruit and bring us joy. Several of the carpenter friends that I have made over these two years are now beginning to study Scripture with me. They want to know about God, and I always direct them to His own Word, that they might know Him personally, not just through me. I know just what John the Baptist meant when he said "I must decrease, that He might increase". Carmelo told me yesterday that this "Bible stuff" was in his life to stay. Gabriel, who I have been teaching woodturning, shared that the first few times he read from the Bible at home he felt sleepy, and even questioned whether anything good could come of this. Then, something moved in him and gave him new desire to continue, and now in just a couple of weeks he has gone through John, Acts, and is half way into Mathew. 

And even though we are leaving for six weeks at the end of this month, we have no fear that what God has begun here will somehow become undone in our absence. They are all quite capable through the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit to carry on without us. It is better for them that we go like this once in a while, and someday soon, to move on. Perhaps this is akin to Jesus telling his disciples that it was better for them that he left, that they might experience the full indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

We are taking our normal time off to spend Easter among the Moravians in Winston-Salem. What we are adding to that, though, is a transition out of the official arrangement we have had with the Moravian Board of World Mission. We gather that some of you did not receive our last letter in mid February that announced that we were resigning from the MBWM as of Mar 31. We joined this group in early 2000 because of their strong affirmation of the vision to take the simple Gospel to new places in the trust that baby churches could form and reproduce freely. 

Inherent to the proclaiming of the Gospel is the message that I, the worst of sinners, have found a complete rest for my soul in that unique work of Jesus Christ. Having started there, I can then hold that same hope out to any around me that might be striving with their own sinfulness. And it is God's reliable Word that helps me first see my sin that I might be free of it. He shows me my real condition, not to condemn me, but only to save me. This has a distinct beginning, and then becomes a process. I need that saving grace more each day as in my walk I see ever more clearly how far I am from all that God intends for me. Just as God does not condemn me, I can not condemn any other of his children as I hold out to them this Gospel. My sin may be different in kind than others, but all comes from our inherent condition of sinfulness. In great part, it was this simple Christocentric theology of the Moravians that attracted us as we grew closer to them. 

All their official documents upheld this until last summer, when at the Synod of the Northern Province (slightly more than half the North American Moravians), they carried an underground trend out into the open by passing resolutions that require the church to celebrate homosexuality. This was not revoked at a world wide Unity Synod shortly thereafter, which suggests to us at least a tacit agreement with that trend by the majority of leaders of the partner provinces. The only way we can interpret what that really means is an abandoning of a forthright reading of God's revelation, meant to be a gift to us, and putting in its place the quite limited reasoning of fallible man. We know too well our own struggle with sin, and even specifically of those struggling with homosexual perversion, to so lightly throw off God's loving and correcting hand. "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light." 

The kind of leadership that will affirm and carry out these decisions cannot help us be faithful to what God has called us to do. Initially we waited upon other faithful leaders in the missions group to find ways to resolve this. Their long dialogue with denominational leaders proved fruitless, and so most of us together are resigning at the end of this month. This includes the entire operating staff of the Mission Board, and the two teams of missionaries working outside of North American among unreached people groups. 

I believe this can only leave us freer to pursue God's call on our lives among the Mixtecos. The wonderful freedom for churches to be birthed and grow with their own leadership, once actually seen as a reality here in Mexico, has become uncomfortable to many leaders in the Moravian church. Not a few would be reluctant to recognize this church, and its leader, as of the same nature as their own churches and leaders. Even less legitimate would be its daughters and grand-daughters. The opinions of man, so far removed from the everyday life of Ometepec, matter little to this small body. They aren't even aware of them. They know they are alive in Christ, and that is the spring of their hope. They pray regularly for blessings upon all the North American visitors they have hosted, and their churches, and are grateful for this connection to the wider Church. They innocently assume from their own aliveness that all Christians of good faith would see that too. When I tried to explain some of this to RuthE, she quite indignantly asked "Does that mean they don't like poor people?" (Since a lot of it has to do with things like buildings, adornments, and higher education).

 Where it matters is in helping the North American churches that really do want to follow Christ's lordship in matters of extending the Gospel close and far. The concept of apprentice missionaries was another matter poorly accepted. We are very grateful that Bill and Camilla and children are here learning to interact with Latin culture, reaching into neighbourhoods never touched before with a real-live witness of God's love made flesh. Their willingness to subject themselves to everyday reality, to joys and sorrows, to poverty and fiestas, speaks far louder than their broken Spanish. We consciously avoid spending much time with them during this acculturation period, and so our Saturday family get-togethers is a highlight, as well as the once a week discipling time I have with Bill (and Anne with Camilla). Owen and Staci have returned to Minnesota after close to a year among us, and will carry on their service there, in part among Hispanics. 

I trust that if you are still with me in this lengthy letter that you are interested to know what's next. During our state side time we will be finalizing plans with the individual Moravian church that we became part of during our sabbatical year to carry on as our sending group. At the same time we are pursuing a natural connection to the mission board of the Mennonite Brethren denomination, of which my home church in Canada is part of. This would connect us again more closely to her, and give us covering in both countries. That is far from complete, so I only mention it that you might be aware, and pray that God's providence be known. We will be communicating these details as they get ironed out. Please do not send support to the Moravian Board of World Missions after the end of March, unless otherwise arranged. We can survive fine for a month or two while things get worked out, and then we trust that we can all continue on even better footing.

 I thank God often for the bonds of love He has given us through all of you, and how that sustains us where ever we are. May His rich blessings be yours increasingly, and with our love, 

Robert and Anne.

March 10, 2003