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Missionary Rick Lance is executive director of the Alabama Baptist State
Board of Missions. |
Other Recent Blog Entries:
A Sincere and
Respectful Call for A Great Commandment Renewal
Thursday, June 24, 2010
As I have said earlier, I will do my best not to let
disagreements define our relationships. I am praying that The Great Commandment
Renewal will begin in me!
VBS Is a Blessing!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
As a pastor, I always felt that VBS was to be a major
commitment on my part. I wanted to be in town, involved and engaged in the
efforts of impacting the lives of children, youth and adults. It was not a chore
for me, but rather it was a joy!
Taking the
'Stew' Out of Stewardship
Thursday, May 27, 2010
At first, I thought I had hurt his feelings. I mean
this was a serious project, and maybe I was being a little too cute for my own
good.
| |
March 2008
Children of the City Dump
Submitted: Thursday, March 20, 2008; 4:17 p.m.
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Children growing up near the city dump are being loved and cared
for by our brothers and sisters in Christ in Guatemala City.
During our recent visit to Guatemala, Reggie Quimby, Teman
Knight and I saw firsthand the ministry we have with our Baptist
partners in that major Central American city. Our primary reason
for the visit was to teach and train the pastors working in the
various 300 or more Baptist churches of Guatemala.
As our group shared in the excitement of what the Lord is doing
in these pastors' lives, we had an added treat. We made a visit
to the city dump to see the ongoing ministry with former
prostitutes and drug addicts, who also are mothers of the
children in the daycare, located across the street from the city
dump. We marveled at the way people's lives were being impacted
by those caring believers reaching out to them in the name of
Christ.
This fact reminded me that Jesus died on the cross near the city
dump, called Gehenna or the Valley of Hinnom. In ancient times,
Baal worshippers sacrificed children in this valley for their
pagan gods. Later, it became the city dump for the refuse of
Jerusalem and the makeshift burial grounds for dead animals and
criminals. Gehenna became synonymous for hades or hell. It was a
despised place known for terrible eyesores and awful smells.
People did not want to live near the city dump.
The death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the
dead gave hope to the most hopeless of the first century and
those of the twenty-first century as well. The women and
children living near the city dump have an outpost of hope where
they receive the message of God's saving love. The Lord and His
love are alive and well in the most deplorable of places: the
city dump.
All Christians everywhere can minister in the most unlikely of
places. It does not have to be a literal city dump to have this
kind of ministry. Actually, everywhere becomes destitute when
the love of Christ does not rule and reign. Sometimes the most
successful looking people feel like their lives are nothing more
than city dumps. You don't have to be poor and destitute to be
down and out and feeling hopeless.
I will never forget seeing the eager eyes of little children at
the daycare, near the city dump. I will always remember the
winsome smiles of women who have found hope for their lives
through the ministry of caring believers. They are learning to
cook and to sew. They are learning how to care for their
children. More important, they are learning that God loves them,
even though they live near a city dump.
C. T. Studd, a well-known English missionary to China, Africa
and India, once famously said "some wish to live within the
sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop
within the yard of hell." In the days of Jesus, the Valley of
Hinnom or Gehenna meant "hell." It was their city dump. The
believers in Guatemala City have taken the call to minister
"within the yard of hell" very seriously, and so should we. |
