A Church Under a Tree

God promise His people a land flowing with milk and honey. To me the United States has been that. We have lots of things; more things that we will ever need or used.We are too rich in many material things and sometimes these things make us poor in the things that matter.Today I want to tell you a story of a place that is rich and poor at the same time and a Pastor serving in this place.

I have know Pastor Jose (or hose B since I am hose A) Esparza for the last seven years. I have seen how God has work in his heart. When we first met he was a leader in a church in Yuma and was going to the seminary. This past September he quit his job to be a full time Pastor in a mission point he started in Mexico. He started this "Church Under a Tree" about 40 minutes from Yuma as you can see in the picture below.

This past Saturday our Church Youth Group traveled to this church. They moved from the tree to a lot where they will do the building for their church. For now this building will help with the winter cold weather.

Our youth played kick ball with all the kids there. It was awesome to see them play and have a good time together; language was not a problem. I always say if you put ten kids from different nations together in less that 10 minutes they are playing together and language is not a problem. My question always is why can adults do the same? After the game all come into the building to worship and it was good to see them worshiping in English and Spanish at the same time. I can only imagine the joy for our God as He understands all the languages, Wow! As I was taking picture I looked at the drummer and saw how resourceful he was. The night before the sticks broke so they left them at a different place so he walked to a tree and made a pair.

Our Youth every year take Christmas presents to kids. For most of these kids this gift will be the only one they will receive this Christmas. This year our Youth wanted the kids of this church to be the one to receive all these presents. There were more than 80 kids of all different ages. It was great to see their faces full of joy as they got their gifts.

Before the gift ceremony Pastor Jose have a message especially for the kids in which he told them about the bigger gift. The gift of salvation that God has for them and ask them who wanted to receive it and most of them got up and pray to receive God's Gift. Along with them was Jose's Daughter Stephanie praying for them. She is in charge of the kids ministry. I wonder how many time she has pray for them to do make this decision.

Well it was an awesome day for all. The afternoon end it in a very Latino fashion. Christ told us when two or more are talking about me I will be there with you. For us Latinos we take it to an other level. When two and more Latinos are present and are talking about Christ He is present and so its the FOOD, and yes all of us were given a bowl of POZOLE. It was so good!! The ladies from the church made it.

In the beginning of this story I wrote about this place that is spiritually rich and material poor. This place is like a lot of place I have seen in the Dominican Republic on fire for our Lord. On this Christmas as we make our gift list or buy our own big gift; I want to ask you this question: have you ask God for His gift? He is waiting for you with open arms just as you are with baggage and all. Make this Christmas the best ever invite God into your life, and receive the greatest gift; God's Salvation.