Growing Pains
Growing Pains
Anyone have kids that wake you up at night with aching knees
and legs? Growing pains, we call it.
We also have kids that are waking us up at night. No, not our teens. They’re all growing by leaps and bounds
these days, but no growing pains so far.
The ‘middle-of-the-night-wake-up-and-pray’ call is coming from our
spiritual kids, the Mesi church.
In February, a visitor hiked into our Mesi-land mountains. From most accounts, he was polite, even
charming, and he promptly opened evening sessions for all to come and ask
questions of him as a teacher. For
several weeks he sat by fires and answered questions quietly and indirectly. “Yes, God’s Word is good to listen to,” he
said. “Is there a hidden meaning to
these verses…?” Our friends listened,
and looked at each other, and went home and pondered his hints and insinuations about fertility rituals.
Some Mesi listeners said to themselves right away, “This is garbage.” Others were quiet. The talk that they heard called to their
flesh like a drink calls to an alcoholic.
“Maybe there is hope in this.
Maybe there is a way to an easier life in this.” One group of Bible teachers publicly
announced that they wanted to have nothing to do with the talk, but many waited
and wondered.
Combating Hidden
Talk
In our western cultures, we communicate our most important
messages in public. Up front, from a
teacher’s desk or a podium, a judge’s bench or an auditorium. Say it loudly and clearly! Put it in writing
and post it!
What if, all your life, your parents had shown you by their
words and actions that the MOST important messages you would ever hear were those given to you in secret? Picture our Pal
village 10 years ago. Small family
groups cluster together around the fire, whispering the clan’s ‘powerful’
words. A father imprints secret hunting
rituals on his son. An uncle reveals to
his nephew the secret phrases he can use to enthrall the girl he has his eye on
and make her unable to resist him.
And
then, new people - missionaries - who think and talk in completely different ways moved into
Pal. You watched them stumble through
learning your language, and not only that, they learned how you worked and
played and thought. They ate with you
and laughed with you and cried with you, and they said that they wanted to
teach you the most important message you would ever hear.
However. These people
wanted EVERYONE to hear this message.
And they taught it in public, for all to hear. Many, many listened and said, “We finally
understand who Jesus is and why He came.”
Many responded with joy as they heard of Jesus’ finished work.
And yet the desire for secret messages and power continues
to call to the hearts of Pal believers.
Will you please pray for the Pal church? We have just come through a major
upheaval. Those Bible teachers who were
caught by the lies of the false teacher and publicly began asking similar
questions have been asked to step down.
Those who listened quietly and didn’t speak up have apologized. And those who stood for what is true exhorted
the community of believers again to turn away from lies.
We’ve got much more that we’ll share in weeks to come, but
for now: please pray with us for these growing pains!
“…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge
of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the
fullness of Christ. Then we will no
longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there
by every wind of teaching…” Ephesians 4:13-14a
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