I guess while sitting in an ICU waiting room in Alabama worrying about my grandmother while severe storms pummel Memphis causing me to worry also about my husband, child and mother in law is as good a time as any to update a blog that has been inactive a while. Don't expect rainbows and kittens.
Recently we felt that God was calling us to leave our church where we had been very happily involved for a couple of years. As a result we have been visiting churches and praying God will lead us where we need to be. I also just read a book called "Silence" that is a fictional account of Catholic missionaries in Japan in the 16th century. I am under the impression that there is an element of historical fact relating to how the Gospel was brought to Japan.
In our search for a new church home, we have visited a number of churches, and feel that God is leading us to one of 2 churches. Both are doctrinely sound, and both are places where we could put our gifts to use. The real question (other than if God has one chosen for us over the other) will come down to style. One traditional, more formal church- the other is more contemporary and relationship driven. We are planning to get involved both places and see what happens from there.
In "Silence" the Portugese priests face great peril to bring the Gospel of good news to the Japanese. The journey there is long and dangerous, the government is antagonistic and the peasants fall into 2 camps- desperate for Christ or vehemenently against a change in their way of life. Captured priests are tortured (or Christian peasants are the victims) until Christ is renounced by the Fathers.
What a discrepency between our modern faith and what the early Japanese faithful had to endure. For us, the big decision is "guitar or organ? khakis or hose? Wednesday church-wide dinner or small group Bible study in homes?" Their choices were "trod on the face of Christ or be killed." This situation is still the case in many places around the world. Certainly makes what has been a major disruption in our lives fall into perspective.
Oh how fortunate we are. And how much more mindful we should be of those brothers and sisters in the Faith that are not.
Recently we felt that God was calling us to leave our church where we had been very happily involved for a couple of years. As a result we have been visiting churches and praying God will lead us where we need to be. I also just read a book called "Silence" that is a fictional account of Catholic missionaries in Japan in the 16th century. I am under the impression that there is an element of historical fact relating to how the Gospel was brought to Japan.
In our search for a new church home, we have visited a number of churches, and feel that God is leading us to one of 2 churches. Both are doctrinely sound, and both are places where we could put our gifts to use. The real question (other than if God has one chosen for us over the other) will come down to style. One traditional, more formal church- the other is more contemporary and relationship driven. We are planning to get involved both places and see what happens from there.
In "Silence" the Portugese priests face great peril to bring the Gospel of good news to the Japanese. The journey there is long and dangerous, the government is antagonistic and the peasants fall into 2 camps- desperate for Christ or vehemenently against a change in their way of life. Captured priests are tortured (or Christian peasants are the victims) until Christ is renounced by the Fathers.
What a discrepency between our modern faith and what the early Japanese faithful had to endure. For us, the big decision is "guitar or organ? khakis or hose? Wednesday church-wide dinner or small group Bible study in homes?" Their choices were "trod on the face of Christ or be killed." This situation is still the case in many places around the world. Certainly makes what has been a major disruption in our lives fall into perspective.
Oh how fortunate we are. And how much more mindful we should be of those brothers and sisters in the Faith that are not.
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