I have been attending a new church plant going on in the part of the city where we are working with the Health Initiative. They are meeting in the home of a sister from another group of Christians. This is an exciting new work. Part of the reason it is exciting is because this group meets so close to the clinic where we are working. When volunteering at the clinic I sometimes have the opportunity to speak about the mission work here in a more comprehensive manner and can invite people to come join us on Sunday nights. It’s also exciting because people from the community are coming and it’s slowly growing. We are acquainted with this other group from occasionally meeting together, and this is just another way to come alongside them in unity.
I would like to expound a bit on the fact that the work I am privileged to do through CUDA’s Health Initiative allows me to be connected with this new house church plant. Part of our strategy as a mission team is to work holistically in God’s kingdom here in Arequipa. Part of what that means is sharing our faith as we teach people how to prevent Diabetes. I often have the opportunity to mix the physical, emotional and spiritual in a short 15-minute conversation with someone. I really do believe that God cares about each part of us. For example, in Mark 2, Jesus heals a paralytic and forgives his sins at the same time. Later in Mark 6 Jesus feeds the 5,000 while he teaches them valuable spiritual lessons as well. If Jesus blended the spiritual and the physical, then I think we should as well. After all, why focus so exclusively on the spiritual while every other part of the man suffers? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to do it that way. Yes, the spiritual part of the man is the most important, but the other parts of a man are still important and still a part of him and all parts are interrelated. It’s amazing to see God working in this way. I certainly didn’t plan for this church plant to start up so close to the clinic, but it is a blessing and an opportunity.