Do you worship Martin Luther?
What would you do/say if someone asked you the following questions?
- Are you Mormon?
- What is a Lutheran?
- Do you worship Martin Luther?
- Can you drink?
- So you are an evangelical, right?
Believe it or not, I have been asked all of the above questions, many multiple times!
A major blessing about looking different than most people in Linares is that I am almost always asked “What are you doing here?” which usually quickly transitions the conversation to church and faith topics. I have also discovered that discussions about my “pastor-heavy” family also quickly bring on the religious questions. Once people find out that almost all the men in my family are pastors, they have quite a few things to ask!
Talking about my faith in Chile has proved a unique challenge for two reasons.
- The conversations are in Spanish which are always humbling experiences. (like that one time I mentioned the “Old Testicle” instead of the “Old Testament” WHOOPS!)
- Many of the people that I have talked to have never heard of the term “Lutheran”
No matter where you live or what language you speak, it is always a wonderful challenge to navigate through conversations about your faith. It has certainly pushed me to dig a little deeper when doing personal bible studies. It is one thing to say “I believe in Jesus” or “I am a Lutheran” but it is another to know and articulate what those statements actually mean.
Why did I insert a seemingly random jumping picture into this post you ask? Well, meet Carla, the beautiful lady on the right. Carla is a member of the congregation here in Linares and in my opinion she has the BEST technique for sharing her faith. When Carla talks about her Jesus she simply wears a huge smile and repeats over and over again “He is my rest. When I go to church, I rest. He is my rest.”
Does the gospel get any more beautiful and engaging than that? Who is this woman and what is this amazing rest that she is talking about?
God wants us to “seek Him” and to dig deeper into His word, and by doing so we will be better prepared to answer faith questions that come our way. However, no matter how seemingly complicated a faith question might seem, the answer should always center on the basic truth.
Carla’s simple message is THE MESSAGE. We as sinners can’t find true rest anywhere in this world. We can find it in our Savior. He simply asks that we believe in Him. Eso es todo.
This past week we were able to hang out with some special visitors. Laura Harstad, our supervisor from Kingdom Workers, spent the week with us and Pastor Mike Hartman also visited to share the resources of Academia Cristo with us and the congregation.
amorchile 