Palm Sunday

Blessman Ministries has been hosting several different groups of Americans recently.  One of the groups was from Iowa, another is made up of medical students doing a type of "exchange" program with hospitals here, and the other group, though originally from Iowa, came from Switzerland.  The group from Switzerland, who is still here, is a family with four children of different ages.

Last Saturday we took the Iowa group and the family from Switzerland to Hope Christian Church, the recent BMI church plant, to do a work project.  The walls of the school that we worship in were a little dirty and beat up with nail and screw holes and blank spots where bulletin boards used to be.  The project was to clean the walls and then paint them.

The two youngest children with us (not counting Stella) jumped right in to paint with all the rest of us, about 13 total.  They took the rollers and brushes and with smiles on their faces they started slapping thick layers of paint on the plastered walls.  They did not know what they were doing.  They did not know how much paint was too little or too much.  They did not know how to hold a brush or how to stroke the brush back and forth or up and down to make a nice smooth and even coat.  They just painted.

I know that some people might have watched in horror, but I LOVED it!

To the left you can barely make out where a bulletin board used to be.

It would have been easy for any one of us adults to ask them to stop and go play outside.  It would have been easy for us to tell them to leave the painting to the "grown-ups."  But that would have been wrong.  

There is a reason why Jesus said we need to have faith like a child.  It is because children do not need to be perfect.  They simply try with all their heart and with a smile on their face, but the most important thing at the end of the day is that they get to be present with everybody, that they get to participate in what others are doing.

Sure, we had the luxury of not having to worry about be extremely precise or clean which they gave them the opportunity to try something new.  But it was also a wonderful experience for us adults to work alongside them and share in their fun and joy.

Working hard.

My point is this.  Kids give us a glimpse into what it means to truly be human and have a relationship with God.  Life is not about perfection, whether being a perfectly moral person or being a perfect painter.  Life is about living in the presence of God.

As Easter approaches I am reminded that the promises of God are not to make us perfect, but to bring us into a better and closer relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The resurrection is not a glimpse at perfect morality.  It is a glimpse at a new life lived with God in child-like wonder and excitement.  It is a day to remember that God did not create us to be perfect people, but to simply pick up our paint brushes and start painting WITH Him in freedom and love!

Getting Hope Christian Church off the ground has been a bit nerve racking.  I can easily get caught up in the problems of cultural and language differences that make being a pastor here so much more difficult.  It has been difficult to really develop strong relationships with people at church because it is hard to simply have a conversation with someone who barely speaks English and I speak about three words of Sepedi (the most commonly spoken South African language in this area).  It is also a bit discouraging to think that half the congregation might not understand the sermon or the Bible readings that are in Enlgish.

But watching those kids paint reminded me to simply pick up my brush, put a smile on my face and start working.  I don't have to be the perfect pastor or a perfect preacher.  God simply wants me to participate. He will take care of the hard stuff and He has!    

Ready for worship on Palm Sunday

Like the walls that we painted last Saturday, that turned out beautiful, God is painting a beautiful picture of a new congregation called Hope.  A congregation filled with South Africans, Zimbabweans, Americans, and even someone from Slovakia!  
    

Walking to the cross as a congregation.

This past Sunday our congregation traveled to the cross.  We did not have palm branches to wave.  We worship in a country schoolroom with half the ceiling missing.  We still do not have a cross in the "sanctuary." But a team from America recently erected a cross outside the church by the nearby road.  So we traveled to that cross as a congregation to remember the journey that Jesus took from that Sunday of celebration to that "Good" Friday of pain and suffering.  We gathered at the foot of that cross to lay our lives down once again for our Savior.  The cross is the place where all our messes and all our sloppiness is made into something beautiful and at the foot of the cross the beauty of God shines through take the sloppy paint job that is our life and turn it into a glorious work of art by giving us forgiveness.  This Sunday we remember that the cross is empty because Jesus is RISEN!  He is alive and offering us resurrection and new life.

May your Holy Week be a time of comfort and peace as you gaze upon the cross and see the deep, deep love of Jesus at work in your heart and your life.  May God take the pain and suffering that you are going through and turn that into joy, peace, and hope.  And may God continually resurrect your life and bring you into a deeper relationship with Him!

"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba,Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."  - Romans 8:14-17