Tears of Emotion

This morning as a joined my voice with about three hundred other people in worship, songs transitioning from English to Spanish and back again, I began to cry.  They weren't tears of sadness, they weren't tears of joy, the best I can describe them is as tears of emotion.  The whole package of seeing God's hand at work, reconnecting with my past, participating in worship where I didn't have responsibility, a sense of "how amazing is this," and  more seemed only able to express itself in tears.  For simplicity's sake, I'm glad it happened then rather than during my few minutes before the congregation.  (I had to snap three shots from the platform to capture the congregation)

Cochabamba International Church is a wonderful place.  It is now what we only dreamed it could be when it started ten years ago.  This morning I compared the time I was involved to infancy.  Fun, exciting, and cute, but an infant can't do much of anything.  There can be dreams, but they are down the road.  However, as anyone in early childhood development will tell you, the first 5 years are critical.  They define so much of what follows.  It is a joy to see what has been build upon the foundation laid years ago.

For some reason over the years I have transferred from one PDA to the next a copy of the vision statement we wrote in the first six months of existence of CIC.  It is still there.

Here is what it said:

A biblically based community empowered by the Holy Spirit to glorify God by:

• Sharing the life changing good news of Jesus Christ
• Nurturing and connecting the internationally minded in Christ
• Serving the need of our world.

With Wick - who was also on the original leadership team.
He came back as well and delivered the sermon this morning.

By the grace of God this has happened.  The church has sent out missionaries, connected to college students, brought together internationals and internationally minded (over 50% of the congregation is Bolivian).   In many ways the church is now somewhere in adolescence.  It will be a joy to see where God takes this congregation as it moves into the future!


PS.  Out of the whole congregation only a handful of people had ever seen my face before, however, to my surprise the small group Jen and I started is still in existence!  They have become "true friends in Christ."