Poco a poco

"Poco a Poco" is a Spanish term for "little by little". It is used for anything that is slow in coming...such as, "We learn to speak Spanish poco a poco." It implies the need to have patience and keep on keeping on. Very often that's just the way reaching an area for Christ is...poco a poco. We would like to see an explosion of new believers, and history tells us that it has happened...Pentecost, the Great Awakening, various movings of the Spirit that brought revival. There are even some modern day happenings, such as church planting movements in China, some places in Indonesia, and a couple of others that it might be better not to mention. It is something that we long for, pray for, work for. But in the end, that kind of spectacular response is a movement of God and cannot be orchestrated. More often our work is poco a poco. Relationships have to be established, cultivated, and nurtured. People have to gain trust and often want to see if we are genuine. I liken our work to a farmer. He plows the field, plants the seed, cultivates the land, but he can't guarantee a harvest. We can distribute the gospel, visit the people, conduct Bible studies, and even do some discipleship, but we can't guarantee a movement.

The phenomenon is interesting. A good deal of time is spent just visiting with folks. One has to eat weird food (At least to us, it is.), imbibe liquid refreshment (non-alcoholic, of course) with weird stuff floating in it. And then there's the language...always the language. For some, it's no problem...oh for that gift...but for others (such as me)it's a constant struggle to understand and be understood. Fortunately, virtually everyone is patient and kind to us poor gringos. But people can discern your heart, and they respond to genuine concern and "poco a poco" a relationship is built.

Pray for several people that we are building relationships with: Luz Marina, Vanessa Meza, the Solano family, Roxana and Cristian. These are people that have expressed an interest in studying the Bible. A couple of them profess to be Christians (in the sense we believe it). Others are just interested, or at least being polite. These are open doors that, hopefully, God will use to bring more people into the kingdom.