Associate pastor, FBC Dothan
I am writing this column while flying back to Dothan from Guatemala. I was one of eight people from First Baptist Church, Dothan, who participated with an Operation GO team in Guatemala.
Our missions assignment with International Mission Board missionaries Larry and Sarah Plyler was to work with the people of Mazatenango and Retalhuleu. We concentrated on two activities: prayer walking the streets in a community and then distributing the Gospel of Mark, Spanish edition, to those same homes beside which we had prayer walked.
“Strange” as it may seem, what we discovered there in Guatemala is what we will find here in Alabama:
– There are people who are not willing to make a serious commitment to Christ as Lord and Savior. For whatever reason, there is the same hesitancy among some of the good people of Guatemala, concerning the message of salvation, as there is here at home — “I’m not ready.”
– There are people that are in Christ, but because of the past sins (indiscretions) of the local church, these Christians are not worshiping together with other believers. One church that once testified to the glory of Christ is now but a skeleton of what it used to be. Many that we met called that church the “abandoned church.” They said that they wanted to be there but the past failures and the lack of current pastoral leadership caused them not to go, thus hurting that church.
– There are people who were literally waiting for someone to come where they live and give them some hope, to tell them some good news. Each day, we met people who were longing to see the love of Christ come to their door. While walking through these neighborhoods, we were introduced to a woman at a well and a widowed mother and her 15-year-old son who was heavily involved in alcohol, plus many others.
There was one difference that I discovered in Guatemala that I personally don’t find in my area of Alabama. I don’t see Alabama Baptists intentionally prayer walking their local neighborhoods and finding those people who want to know God. That’s one difference I want to change. How about you?
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