Did I really do that?

This past weekend I went to Paso Canoas, where I first went last month and wondered, was it worth it?

Once again, the 6 hour red-eye bus ride, a brief stay for rest at a friends house, followed, by the 90 minute bus-ride to the border town.

Pictured to the above is the actual border crossing.

We took a small bus to get up there.  I took some video of the jam-packed overcrowded bus on the way home, but the lighting was off and it didn’t work.

A small group had gathered in a very small, blue painted room, one of the few tiled areas in this structure.  They were patient with my Spanish as we talked about church planting and a biblical theology of missions.

Did I really do that?

This time, my host was the director of the school I am teaching, and he shared with me several testimonies of how our evangelism training is being used.

This group is working particularly with Muslims who are seeking Christ.  I am not an expert in this kind of evangelism, yet they are taking the principles of our teaching and applying it in their context.

Another group is applying the teaching on evangelism to how they are wanting to reach indigenous tribes accessible only by boat.

Yet another group is applying the principles to reach out to others in their neighborhood and I heard reports of new believers because of those outreaches.

I’m not an expert in any of these fields in particular, but it demonstrates how people take the training we provide and run with it in their given context.

That leaves me in awe of how God is taking this work further than we could ask or imagine.

The troubles of travel

The bus home was overcrowded and very uncomfortable 90 minute ride back from the border to the terminal.

The second bus was not entirely clean, had broken seats, and the suspension system so overworked that the 6.5 hour trip home felt like we were driving on a gravel road.

My body couldn’t relax, as it was constant jolted from the bus’s reaction to the ruts in the road, or thrown from side to side as it rounded curves.  The air conditioner was so high, that with even a sweater and a hat on, I was cold.  Sleep unfortunately was not an option.

14 hours of bus travel round trip for a 3 hour class.

Is it worth it?

The answer is still yes.

That’ll become clear when a house church gets launched among new converts out there.