“They’re Tearing Down the Church”

On Sunday morning missionary Greg Dahl picked us up at the SAM guesthouse in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. He wanted us to experience a Bolivian worship service at the Luz y Vida (Light and Life) Church in a rural area on the edge of Santa Cruz.

Until this week, the church met in a three-sided room built off the pastor’s home. “I guess I should have called before we came,” he said. “They’re tearing down the church.” And we watched as Pastor Alejandro and a group of young men dismantled the ceiling rafters one by one so they could reconstruct the same small building in a vacant lot about 30 yards away, at the junction of two gravel roads. The new site is dominated by a huge tree.

Taking down the rafters

A young boy in front of the pulpit

When we got out of the truck, Maria (the pastor’s wife) and the wife of the elder of the church came over to greet us. Maria was excited, declaring (through Greg’s translation) that this was a huge step of faith for the tiny congregation. She asked me to pray that God would bless the move and that she and her husband would remain firm for the Lord. While I prayed, my words were punctuated by fervent words of agreement spoken in Spanish.

Then we walked over to the construction area to watch as the men quickly dismantled the ceiling, one long wall, and then the entrance facing the gravel road. They carefully saved each piece because they didn’t have the money to buy new wood.

The pastor greeted us warmly and played a guitar while he and Maria (joined by several others) sang several beautiful Spanish worship songs, including the Spanish version of “Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord.” We sang along in English. We spent an hour laughing, talking, getting to know each other, and sharing our common faith. Meanwhile the young men continued their work, and by the time we left, the walls had almost completely come down. They planned to use sledge hammers to break up the concrete floor into small pieces, transport it to the new location, lay it on the dirt, and then cover it with a layer of new concrete. Unlike American churches where everything has to be brand new, the Bolivians use and reuse everything they possibly can.

That’s Pastor Alejandro in the red shirt standing next to me.

It was wonderful to be around these dear saints of the Lord. I was reminded again of the communion of the saints that exists wherever true believers meet. Though separated by distance, language and culture, we are joined forever as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. When Maria asked if I would return someday and preach in the new church building, I said I would love to. You can sense that God’s hand is at work at Luz y Vida, and we were more blessed yesterday than if we had been there for an actual church service.