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Serving the Common Good Gets Attention of Community Leaders
July 23, 2011
The stellar moment of the week for me happened on Friday morning.
Pastor Cerritos invited community leaders from across the Villa Nueva area to come together, and he asked the Houston Harbor team to provide a time of encouragement and training for these leaders around the idea of community transformation.
Approximately 30 people attended – eleven (11) of whom serve as the president of their respective neighborhood association. All of these associations are located in Villa Nueva, which is to Guatemala City (location wise) what Katy would be to Houston.
For several years Pastor Cerritos has been attempting to connect community leaders to collaborate on impacting their neighborhoods. As in the United States, Guatemalans tend to work in isolated silos. Additionally many of the leaders of these neighborhood associations have deep disregard for the institutional church because of it’s general apathy toward the conditions of people who live in poverty in Guatemala. So, Pastor Cerritos has had a very difficult time getting people to come together.
The work done this week to train public school teachers has gotten the attention of the entire Villa Nueva community. Nearly 200 teachers received excellent training. In formal feedback forms, they indicated the high value they received, and we received numerous invitations to return soon. Clearly, the word about this experience traveled quickly across the area.
Julie Taylor provided a very powerful and encouraging word of encouragement from the Scriptures and then I was asked to give a word of “exhortation” to the group. When we finished one community leader after another stood and expressed gratitude for the way their community had been served. Several expressed their regret at having been so non-responsive to previous attempts to call them together. One older man – who others in the room seemed to defer to – stood and expressed his gratitude and his sense of repentance for having stayed so disconnected. He invited us to return soon and often.
The meeting ended and we went to eat our lunch. As we ate, I reflected on the week. The words of Jesus were pulsating in my ears. “The Son of Man came, not to be served but to serve.” Service is the posture of those who follow the Way of Jesus. It’s not a compartment of my life or a project that I work on when I have time or when there is nothing more important to do. It is the posture from which I am called to live my life.
The experience of this week reminds me of two things. It reminds me that the way of service requires a lifestyle of sacrifice. The sacrifice is life-giving, and it is costly to those who choose it. It also reminds me that when we stand in that posture, the world works more like it was designed to work. The shalom of God is more available to everyone.
Already we are praying about what’s next. Please join us in praying that the momentum that was established this week for mobilizing community leaders to work together will be sustained. Pray for the presidents of the neighborhood associations in Villa Neuva to have wisdom and perseverance. Pray for Jorge and Anny Cerritos and Cuidad de Refugio as they continue to serve as catalyst for the growing shalom of God in that part of God’s world.