After a much needed morning of sleeping in after 24 hours of travel, we headed to La Finca (which serves as the hub for Iglesia Nueva Vida Los Guido and many of the Christian Light Foundation’s ministries) for lunch. We had some downtime before church started and naturally some of our team enjoyed a quick soccer game. The rest of us enjoyed the afternoon spending time with the youth of the church.
It is always such a neat experience attending church at La Iglesia Nueva Vida. I look forward to it every year! Worship is always enjoyable here. Though we may have not understood much of what was being said, it was great being able to worship our God alongside the people here.
A small group from the church just returned from a mission trip to Nicaragua to visit their sister church and Mark shared with us some of the highlights from their trip. It was quite fitting because he opened up his sermon by challenging us, “Why do we do mission trips?” He wanted us to really examine the reasons we go or in some cases, not go on mission trips. He shared that many people want to say, “If it’s God’s will, I will go”, or “If He provides, I will go”. People overlook the command we are given in Mark 28:19-20, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given to you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” We should go on mission trips because we are commanded to go and make disciples. We don’t need to say, “If it is God’s will, I will go.” He gives the command to GO and therefore that is why we need to go on mission trips. Mark challenged his church members to begin praying now for the opportunity to obey this command and go on a mission trip to Nicaragua in several months.
Hearing this message and these thoughts is a great way to start our week of serving. I pray that it reminds each of us of why we are here- that we are intentional about making disciples.
– Lanaya Hager