Church

One thing that has been a very valuable insight for me/us during the past 4 years here- has been a new perspective on Church. A few years ago, my husband and I decided to make attending Church a priority because it is Biblical and is meant to be something that is a part of a Christian's life. We had to make this definite choice because Churches are not perfect and they don't always suit our needs and desires, and perhaps you can identify with me when I confess that we often don't FEEL like going to Church. So we have been attending a Church (a 40-minute hike from our house) and it has been interesting to see what the Church is in this part of the world - (although to only see it, we could have just attended once or twice.)

One thing I did not anticipate was the encouragement that I would eventually find in regularly attending Church. For many years I felt that we were supposed to attend Church to worship God alongside others with similar beliefs. The focus was on God- the songs were about/to God, the sermon was about God, and we didn't really talk with people before, during or after the service because no one just hung out for that: it seemed we had come 'for God'...

So Church here doesn't 'draw me to God' the way other services have felt to me- and that always disappointed me... until I realized that maybe there was something I was missing in my own understanding of what Church should be. "Let us not give up meeting together..." (Hebrews 10:25)
WHY?
-because we meet together to encourage one another. In fact, I realized that perhaps even in simply attending Church, I can be an encouragement to others who also attend. I have found that I often look around and am so encouraged to see students that I know from school or other teachers in the service. Perhaps it encourages the surrounding community to see that we, staff at the school we work at, are believers - they need to see us there to be reminded that God is working at our school too. And we need to see the community members and hear about struggles and persecutions happening in our area so that we can lift those up to God and be reminded that we are on a team here and are not isolated at our school.

When we first determined to attend Church, I had no idea that God could use that to encourage others and I had no idea that He could use OTHER people's attendance to encourage me so much.

My family is unable to be much more involved than simply attending, but I have learned that perhaps worshiping God happens when we build each other up by simply making Church attendance a priority. It doesn't have to be in the songs or style of music we prefer, or sermon that speaks to our hearts- but simply in gathering as common Believers for His glory -and so He can use our interactions in a positive way.

I don't know if any of that will make much sense to people who have not lived in a similar sort of cross-cultural situation as we are in, but I thought I'd attempt to express my thoughts about it because it has been helpful for me to see another side of 'gathering together'. Hope you are also encouraged to figure out what He has for you through those seemingly dry seasons when Church just isn't 'filling' you up.