One

               What exactly defines family? I ask because I think I’ve found more of mine in Central America. That sounds weird, finding family in another country, but I have.  This past week we visited Honduras to renew our visas and I was actually dreading the trip. I didn’t want to leave the little bit of normality I have found here in Casa Verde and be drug around with a busy ministry schedule. But by the end of the 5 days, a little piece of my heart is left in Honduras.

                I don’t even know how to explain but Puerto Cortes, Honduras is on a different planet than Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. Puerto Barrios is covered by this dark spiritual cloud that smothers any life. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced but it is so present that it’s even physically draining. There’s a sleepiness in the church because of it and like a stench you get accustomed to, we can sense it all the more after leaving for a few days.

                Consequently, going to Honduras was a breath of fresh air, and there I found family I never knew existed. One of the churches we visited and worked with, Iglesia de Cristo Adulam, is pastured by a local family, the Burgos. They are absolutely  amazing and were such a blessing to my team. Sarita (Little Sara) was the first of the Burgos that I met because we were excited we shared names. Turns out we share more than just names. Yes, because of our unity under Christ, we are sisters. But we are also sisters. The same word, I know, but different. After only a few hours, I love that girl.

                Sunday night we had communion. There I was, sitting in a little bread shop where the church meets with Sarita beside me and surrounded by Hondurans taking the Lord’s Supper.  I was overwhelmed by a sense of home and contentment, peace that surpasses all understanding. And suddenly, my eyes were opened that these people are my family. No big moment happened and no one probably noticed, but my world shifted. They’re my family! My brothers and sisters sitting all around sharing this moment in time with me.

“‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ he (Jesus) asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’”
Mark 3:34-35

                You know what’s weird? So often, we treat our family as enemies. Attacking, tearing down, nit picking, and discouraging. We are the body of Christ! Unified under the banner of our God. Who cares what little thing we disagree on or our different style of music or way we do “church?” That’s so completely ridiculous in view of the millions of souls that are sprinting toward hell this very second! I saw a unity among the churches in Puerto Cortes that is absent in Puerto Barrios and I would even dare say in Albany, Georgia. Puerto Barrios is strickened with churches who refuse to work together and consequently, the Gospel is hindered. How can you teach people love when you don’t even love one another?

                I pray God would give us a spirit of unity and love. Of family. We are his sons, coheirs with Christ and called to live that way. Who is the person that is my brother or sister that I have a hard time loving? Who is the person that I find myself thinking ill of rather than encouraging and willing to lay down my life for? And who is the person that I’ve allowed hurt and anger to make me treat them as anything other than the beloved of Christ himself?

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 4:2-6