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It was only 1 day into our Doctrines course that one of our students, Marcel, invited me to speak at their church for the upcoming Sunday. I was thankful for this opportunity as we didn’t have any plans for Sunday service and I’m always more than happy to keep investing in our student’s ministries endeavors. Turns out I had been to their years before on a short trip in 2009, but that one of the most recent hurricanes had decimated the church building to the point that I no longer recognized it.
The church leaders have made the best of a bad situation by utilizing the space with screens and renovations to make it the most accessible for a growing congregation. As is much the case with our church in Michigan, it was hard to even make it into the door of the church building without spending half-an-hour in greeting and being greeted – the fellowship of this congregation is one of the strengths.
I shared a message on the nature of prayer, and Jesus’ encouragement to “not grow weary” as we petition the Lord and are left to live under the patience of God’s good timing. This charismatic congregation responded with great sensitivity to the Word of God and were quite receptive to hear the call to both faithfulness and faith when it comes to trusting God’s timing in prayer. The church is located on the French half of the island and so the service itself was translated into French as I preached. It is always amazing to me to experience the translative power of God’s Spirit to transcend our earth tongues with the singular message of the gospel.
After church we were blessed with lunch from Marcel and his wife. We talked about all the blessings and challenges of raising children in this day and age, and contrasted our experiences between the island life and life back in the US. They’ve both spent considerable time in America and so are well accustomed to some of the unique challenges that our church faces in living with the contemporary ideologies and idolatries.
I was so thankful to have been given the privilege of serving that Sunday and worshipping with our brothers and sisters from St. Martin. It was inspirational to see the resilience and effort of creativity to maintain a congregation through the challenges that these Christians living in the world and on this island are called to endure.