Compare And Contrast

Buddhist Altar

Christian Altar

“From the millions of Hindu gods our family had chosen its favorite deities; and as a small child, even before I understood what they represented, I sensed and feared the power of the small figures standing on the altar and the pictures on the wall around which we hung the sacred beads. Those unblinking eyes of clay and wood and brass and stone and painted paper seemed to watch me when I was not watching. In some strange way these impassive figures seemed more alive than I was and possessed miraculous powers that held us all in awe. Our offerings and worship acknowledged this fearsome superiority.” Former guru Rabindranath R. Maharaj

“Fray Luis looked instinctively towards the wall where he knew Holy Mary, the Virgin of the Rosary, was hanging. In the semi-darkness of his room he could still picture to himself the fresh, rosy cheeks of her who…had been his only companion for the past seven years. How often he had felt her smile upon him, sensed her spirit speaking to his, thrilled to her presence in the long hours of his loneliness. And yet, she, too, had failed him, mocked him, deceived him.” Life of former monk Dr. Walter Manuel Montaño

“We would move the god figures on the family altar tenderly, unwrapping them from the soft cloth, then covering them again; bathing them, clothing them with great care and reverence.” Rabindranath R. Maharaj

“Worship is expressed by actions such as…affectionately touching it…dressing it in fine clothes…God not only classifies images made like animals or objects of nature as idols, but also images made in the form of a man or a woman. This includes images of Mary, the saints, angels, and even the images of Jesus.” Former priest Dr. Anthony P. Pezzotta

Mother Gauri – protects the people, enlightens the spiritual seeker and removes the fear of rebirth by granting salvation

Blessed Virgin Mary – Protectoress; Our Lady of Good Council; Co-Redemptrix

Lakshmi – Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity
St. Martin of Tours – Parton Saint of shop-keepers and of good luck
Saraswati – goddess of knowledge, music, and all creative arts
St. Michael – patron saint of artists
St. Cecilia – patron saint of musicians and singers
Krishna – embodiment of love and divine joy; protector of cows
St. Perpetua – patron saint of cows

Multi-Color Country - A Photo Journal

Las Manualidades

El Restaurante

Las Bolsas

Los Flores

Las Salamandras

La Decoración

El Edificio

Los Paliacates

Los Platos Talavera

Los Manteles

Tidbits

How do you celebrate Independence Day in a country that is not your own? Well you have to be creative that’s for sure. So, you look for fireworks which you can’t find, sing the National Anthem at the breakfast table, make decorations for everyone to wear including the dog, call home to be reminded of how everyone else is celebrating, roust up some bar-b-que sandwiches and watch a patriotic video on the internet.

We spent a great week with Diana’s sister Donita last week. Donita is always quick with a funny story and can keep our children entertained for hours. While we did a few touristy things, most of her time was spent just being an Aunt – hanging out, playing games, drinking frappés, watching the Euro Cup and doing a bit of shopping. Presently Donita is on the second leg of her trip visiting with Diana’s other sister in Houston and getting to know our new nephews and niece recently adopted from Ethiopia.

Christina and I had an interesting father/daughter conversation the other evening. I have to tell you I walked away very impressed with her insight and the acrostic she came up with in the moment. Life here isn’t perfect, but we are learning some profitable lessons along the way.

B – elieve the Bible
I – gnore bad thoughts
B – e not afraid
L – et yourself worship
E – ntrust your heart to Jesus

With the help of our Spanish teacher, a Mexican church leader, a missionary from Guatemala, and an MK from Chile, four study books have been completed on the book of Matthew – Spanish of course. We believe they are a nice complement to the Bibles for a number of reasons: 1) they provide culturally appropriate, life related questions to fuel thought 2) they give a good opportunity for continued follow-up – four booklets 3) they can lead into personal meaningful conversation and further study. The acid test is how the Lord uses them, but on our part they are dedicated to Him. (View the Matthew study here.)

Missionaries Of Prayer

The activity of prayer is a necessary practice and meetings should always start with a quick “word or prayer”, but is prayer really that important for the missionary?

Some would say prayer is an indispensible ingredient of missions, but what about a missionary whose primary focus is prayer?

We have heard, “No prayer, no power; little prayer, little power; much prayer, much power” (Hudson Taylor), but is there room for a missionary of prayer?

Here’s something to think about:

Goa, India - An Indian mission reports that in spite of repeated attempts to plant house churches in Goa over the past 20 years, as of August 1994, they only have eight small, struggling churches in the city.

A team of Brazilian intercessors comes to Goa in the summer of 1994, rents a house and prays for 12 months. They do not engage in any witnessing, literature distribution, or church planting. They simply pray for an entire year.

In the two months after they leave, the Indian mission plants 18 new house churches in this no longer resistant city! (Pray! magazine, 1996 by John F DeVries)

Maybe there is room for a missionary whose primary focus is to prepare the soil and fight the battle. Then again maybe not, do we really think individuals, mission organizations, or churches would support such an idea?

Obviously the gospel must be preached for “how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard.” (Romans 15:14) But it should be noticed that prayer was one of two focuses for the apostles, “We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:3b-4)

I’ll leave you this from The Kneeling Christian, “The lady in India was cast down through the failure of her life and work. She was a devoted missionary, but somehow or other conversions never resulted from her ministry. The Holy Spirit seemed to say to her, ‘Pray more.’ But she resisted the promptings of the Spirit for some time. ‘At length,’ said she, ‘I set apart much of my time for prayer. I did it in fear and trembling lest my fellow-workers should complain that I was shirking my work. After a few weeks I began to see men and women accepting Christ as their Savior. Moreover, the whole district was soon awakened, and the work of all the other missionaries was blessed as never before. God did more in six months than I had succeeded in doing in six years.’ ‘And,’ she added, ‘no one ever accused me of shirking my duty.’”

The Gas Saga

Getting the LP gas tank on your roof filled should not be an emotional, time consuming and gut wrenching experience, but somehow it was. It all started a few weeks ago at a neighborhood meeting when someone suggested all of the homes in our 24 home neighborhood use the same gas company. It seems there was a company ripping us all off and somehow (and I’m not sure how) using the same company would help.

That immediately set up a dilemma for us because we had gotten to know Arturo, shared some pleasantries and given him a Bible. The last time he was here he mentioned that he kept it in the truck and read it. What should we do – but a community decision was a community decision.

So, we waited. We waited to hear who this selected company was hoping against hope that it would be our driver. Meanwhile the gas was running dangerously low, dangerously low that is if you want a hot shower or cooked food. That’s when all the “fun” started.

I had procrastinated as long as possible to decide what to do when a gas truck showed up in the neighborhood. Not only did it show up, but it was at the lady’s house that had made the original suggestion. I’m on the phone praying with a friend when my wife runs up the steps to say, “They’re on the roof; we can get gas!” Just as prayer ended, I unlocked our cage and climbed the ladder like a mad man to get up there before they leave.

Putting in an order to fill our tank, I waited to make sure that everything is above board and honest. Just as they finish our neighbor’s tank and put the hose on our tank, Diana yells up to the roof, “Cancel the order. Our neighbor just came over in tears to say they had cheated her and not to get gas.” So I tell them, “I changed my mind; we don’t want gas today.” That went over like a lead balloon.

Diana then went over to our neighbor to learn the details. Then she went with that neighbor and woke up another neighbor to ask for her suggestion of which company to use, and then went to a third neighbor to finally get the needed information.

If things weren’t crazy enough, I decide to instead call and request Arturo which resulted in a “how is this going to go over with the neighbors who just helped us out” conversation. It wasn’t a very good breakfast. I ended up calling to cancel him too (my second cancelation of the day). Then still needing gas, I called the suggested driver for my third gas order of the day.

I'm leaving out details but suffice to say we now have a full tank. Sound a little crazy? As my wife said, “You can write a post about it, but no one would really understand.”