I learned a few valuable lessons on my trip.

1) God is a big God. It’s humbling to worship with people who live in abject poverty and know that God listens to our prayers, often at the same time as the prayers of a child living in a trash infested swamp, and dosen’t strike us dead, but actually has compassion on us.

2) The world is small. People are people and it is going to be awesome to worship together before God one day if this past week was any indicator.

3) There are faithful pastors and men and women of God working in the tough places of the world without the help of the American church, and sometimes in spite of it. One such is Pastor Dickie of Open Doors Chapel in Belize City and his family. The man is a patriarch of Old Testament proportions. He looks after and mentors the pastors of the city and the street children alike. He helps plant churches all over the country and works faithfully for long term gospel change in his nation.

4) I am allergic to mangoes. My lips look like they had a good dose of botox, but man they were good.

5) There’s no place like home.

A. is a Somali believer. He came to faith when he was a teenager, and has chosen to marry a woman who also follows Jesus. Together, they lead a house church, share their faith, and will raise their children in the way of the Lord. But their choices are difficult in the Somali community, and some Somali Christians have given in to the pressures of their Muslim families. Muslim relatives sometimes pressure believers to send their children to Islamic school, in addition to Sunday School. Single men are pressured to marry Muslim women; some married men are expected to take a second wife. Pray that Somali Christian families will raise their children in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Pray for couples like A. and his wife, who are leaders in the Somali church. Pray that they will be able to set an example for other families to follow. Ask that the Somali church will support one another in making godly choices; ask that they will stand for righteousness in the midst of pressure from Muslim family members. http://www.experiencename.com/