We never thought our house churches would meet virtually for a year! We’re deeply grateful for the opportunity to pray, sing, read, and interact meaningfully as a church every Sunday, though we long to share a table, breakfast, and bread and wine together again someday in the not-too-distant future. We’ve been using the Discover Bible Study process some in our church gatherings and are now sharing the responsibility of choosing a passage and asking the questions for the group’s discussion. Our prayer is that the Spirit would guide the church in its reading of scripture, asking questions about God and humanity, and bringing faith to life in the practice of loving our neighbors.
By the way, this is both a government thing and a safety thing. Some members of the church would be ok trying to gather somewhere outdoors, while others—especially some older members—just don’t feel comfortable, even with that. And I don’t blame them. As you read above, there just isn’t health infrastructure in place if someone gets very sick. Peruvians are dying. So we’re staying virtual for now and when we get opportunities to see our Peruvian church family in person individually and safely, we do try to use that opportunity to minister to them even as they bless us.
We recently finished a 3-month series in the book of Job with those who are able to join on a Thursday night Zoom call. I believe the book’s main thrust—trust in the face of chaos and suffering in God’s good world—connected powerfully over the course of our time reading. This year has definitely brought about a sense of powerlessness, loss of control, and very real suffering for much of the church family here. Getting to lament and question as a community alongside Job, waiting for God finally to show up in the storm (Job 38-41), and put our trust in God in spite of the chaos we’re living in—it’s been good for my soul. The best guide I know for reading through the book’s beautiful poetry and making some sense of the process of lament, disorientation, and bitter questioning of suffering is free on John Mark Hicks’s website (scroll down to Academic Courses). I’ve written a summary of Job in the context of God’s providence and human suffering. And if you want a book written by an author with knowledge and experience of suffering in a Latin American context, look no further.
Special prayer request: pray for a new women’s prayer group with Katie and Paty (who you’ve known for a long time) with Catalina and (a different) Paty—two women who are reading the Bible and praying in this sort of way for the first time. God is speaking and God’s breath and life evident in Katie and Paty—may God breathe life in and through Catalina and Paty as well.
