Those Who Are Waiting

I never dreamed God would lead us to a part of town like this one to start a new church. This was the poorest poor area I had ever seen. An area of about 10 square city blocks housed close to 10,000 people and “housed” would be a very inappropriate word. These were not houses; they were shelters. Most were made of scrap pieces of wood, but some had a wall or two of concrete block. The families would literally build these houses one block at a time. Those who had settled in the neighborhood when the land first became “available” even had a thin layer of cement for a floor. Most of the floors were just packed dirt.
Poverty has a distinct smell and this neighborhood was saturated with that smell. When this number of people invade a piece of property and begin to build their houses, they do so knowing it will be years before the government can provide electricity, water, and sewage facilities. It had already been years…years of raw sewage, flooded paths, drinking water caught in a barrel, and “borrowed” electricity. My wife used to say that even the dirt was dirtier in this part of town. These folks were poor and hopeless.
If we had known how dangerous this part of town was before we met the people who lived there, we might have never considered starting a church there. But once we met some of them, especially, "Maria" (not her real name), we knew what God was asking us to do.
"Maria" lived with her husband and 3 children in this neighborhood. They operated a little store out of their house. They sold rice, bananas, black beans, eggs, coffee, cookies, and the only cold soft drinks in the neighborhood. They had the only concrete block house on their street.
During the week, "Maria" worked as a maid across town in a very nice neighborhood. She worked in the house right next door to ours. We first met her a few days after we moved into our house and heard her singing Christian songs while she stood outside doing laundry. She told us that she had accepted Christ while living in her native Colombia. She also told us that she had been praying for 2 years that someone would come and start a church in her neighborhood.
It was raining the day 3 local church members and I tried to follow the directions "Maria" had given us to her house. We found the neighborhood. There were no streets, just dirt paths that had been turned into mud with the downpour. We stopped several times and asked where the Christian lady lived who had a grocery store in her home. As it turned out, she was the only known Christian in the neighborhood so we soon found our way.
We met her husband and children. We drank coffee under the mango tree. We were shown a piece of property just across the street that was for sale and within weeks we were meeting on that property with a small group of folks from the neighborhood who were interested in studying the Bible. "Maria's" two-year prayer had been answered.
But that really is just the beginning of the story. About 3 times a week, I would go to that neighborhood and just walk up and down those dirt paths. Walking, praying, inviting people to our Sunday Bible study, and looking for divine appointments was pretty much the church planting strategy. It took several weeks of walking but before long the people knew who we were and why we were there. There were about 8 people who were bringing their own chairs, sitting under the shade tree, and listening to the Bible stories each Sunday.
There was one street that I would always walk. Each time I walked by a certain house on that street, she would be washing clothes. She would always stop what she was doing long enough to smile and wave. One day she was waiting for me at the fence in front of her dirt floor house. I could tell that she had finally found the courage to stop me and there was obviously a reason she wanted to talk with me. She introduced herself and began to tell me a story.
Almost a year ago, she had awakened from her sleep and walked outside hoping for a cool breeze in the hot, tropical night. As she looked up into the moonlight, she saw something written in the sky. She described it as being written in the stars. She could see it very clearly and read exactly what it spelled out in Spanish, “Jesus Saves”. She ran inside to wake up her husband, grabbed him by the arm and rushed him outside to show him the sign in the sky. Her husband could not see it even though it was still very visible to her.
As she told me that story, she said, “I have been waiting for someone to come who could explain to me what that message means. Do you know what it means?” In the next few minutes I explained to her the wonderful message of God’s salvation and in that moment, as she stood on one side of the fence and I stood on the other, she prayed and invited Jesus to save her. She was the first person to pray to receive Christ in that newly established church. After that day, the smell of poverty stirs up emotions within me that remind me of the importance of taking the Gospel everywhere and anywhere.
She will be in heaven because "Maria" prayed for a church. She will be in heaven because God wrote her a message and placed in the sky. She will be in heaven because Jesus saves. She will be in heaven because God sent someone to a person who was waiting to be told how to be saved. There are many who are waiting to be told.

* Ask God for divine appointments. To be led to those who have questions and who have a story.

· “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)