Guadalajara: Day 3 | March 24
Erika made us a great breakfast and we headed out to church a little after 8am. I was able to meet the rest of the team when we arrived. Then I went out the lobby and prepared what I was going to say during the service. At one point I was sitting there watching people coming in to the hotel with all their luggage and I prayed that someone would come in for business or something having no idea what was going on and just be led to the church.
Iglesia Radiante starts ON TIME- even in Mexico! After worship, Edgar introduced me and I got up and welcomed everyone from Radiant Church, MI. I had typed out what I was going to say say so my translator knew.
“Good morning!
It’s such an honor for me to be here with you today. I want you to know that you are part of something much bigger than what is happening here in this room. You are part of our family of churches and believers around the world unified around one mission. We worship, we serve, and we sacrifice together for Jesus. We have a global vision. We want to see the church be an expression of heaven on earth. The apostle John got a glimpse of heaven and wrote in the Bible- Behold, I saw a great number of people from all nations, tribes and languages standing before the throne worshipping and shouting “Salvation belongs to OUR God, and to the Lamb.“ We want to see people from everywhere, every religion, every background, drawn together into a relationship with Jesus. Thank you for being a part of this family.”
That went well and Edgar started a new series called Jesus Is, and kicked it off with Jesus is GOD. There are a lot of people around here who have a hard time agreeing with that due to the overwhelmingly catholic culture in Mexico, but the message went great. This weekend they had the most people they have had since launch weekend- 70 adults and a bunch of kids! People hung around after church for quite a while and had fellowship- Edgar said it was really the first time that had happened.
Edgar had a man come forward for prayer after the service- his name was Israel. He said that he had come in way late- like basically at the very end of the sermon. He was from another state in Mexico and had just arrived at the hotel for business. He went on to talk about how he had at one time been a Christian, but he had left the faith for a long time. That day however, God had been working at him and he was feeling very convicted. He arrived at the hotel, and was drawn by God into the service! What an answer to prayer! He said the presence of God brought him back, and he wants to change his life and have a relationship with Jesus again. Later in the day he posted a comment on the church facebook page that said, “ I know I may have only been there for 5 minutes, but in that 5 minutes my life was transformed!” How awesome!
After a couple hours of fellowship and then packing up church, we headed home. We had the whole church team come over for lunch, and I spoke to them. I had planned on speaking about something entirely different, but on Friday, I was drawn to the story of Nehemiah, and how it related to the story of Edgar and building his church. After eating, we gathered and I shared my testimony, and my vision for the global Church. Then I walked them through the teaching on Nehemiah, prophesied over them and encouraged them, then we prayed and worshipped together. When we were done, Edgar dismissed everyone, but it was pretty clear that nobody would be leaving too quickly.
Around 9:30 pm we left to go get tacos with Raul and Phillip from the church team, and the Gomez kids. If you ever are in Guadalajara, you NEED to go to Los Altenos taco joint. They had three different taco base options: head and tongue, steak and chorizo, or al pastor (pork). After you get that on your plate you add fresh salsa, sauce, guacamole, lime, etc. You eat totally on the honor system and then when you can’t eat any more, you go tell a guy how many tacos your group ate and pay him. I had one of each type of taco, and a bonus pork taco for a total of six. Edgar ate 9! Best taco experience to date. My Mexican friends wanted me to speak in Kreyol most of the night because they thought it was hilarious, and liked seeing other peoples reaction to it. That was fun for me, I realize how much I miss speaking that language, it’s so much more fun than English!
~ Joel Doorlag