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Imagine a neighborhood where thousands of people live mostly in tenement houses.
People that migrated to the country with hopes and expectations but many of them did not
see their dreams fulfilled. Their children grow in the middle of that frustrating environment. There is anger. There is a sense of impotence in facing
their destiny. That was the situation of many an inhabitant of
La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires the monster city that is
the Capital of Argentina. Even nature seemed to be
against them. Whenever the wind blows from the south east combined with rain . . . the entire
area would be flooded.
Also because it is a port area many people looking for a job are found there. People
that come for temporary job (loading ships) and other hard jobs can be found there renting
rooms or just living in the streets.
 On
a picturesque side since most of the people that originally
settle there were actually immigrants from Italy,
a lot of Italian "cantinas" flourished there. Restaurants with famous live shows, orchestras
and typical dancing are lined on the Necochea street, named for that reason
"the street of the cantinas". It became a very touristic place. In fact
every single tour of the City of Buenos Aires includes at least one visit to Necochea Street.
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It was
incredible. Imagine a church service, with singing, Bible
reading, testimonies, preaching . . . with people
sitting at tables drinking coffee and eating . . . no benches. It was really strange . . .but it
proved highly positive because
we were putting the church where it was needed. |
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The Story:
My heart still runs faster and tears well
up to my eyes when I bring to memory the years I spent in La
Boca. That's where I began in full time ministry. I served first
as minister of music and then as associate pastor. The memories
of those years are among my most precious treasures. They were
some of the most blessed years of my life and ministry.
In 1973 Ralph Hiatt (at the right) four
missionaries from America teamed up to plant four churches in
Buenos Aires in an effort that was called "Impact 73" . One of
those missionaries was Ralph Hiatt from California, and the
neighborhood was, yes you guessed, La Boca.
The initial crusade lasted several months and was held in a open
air parking lot; in fact the church met in that lot for a time
until we were able to buy a building. It was located in the famous
"cantina street" (Necochea Street); as a matter of fact the
building was actually a former "cantina".
What was "odd" about this church?
Couple of reasons. One it was continually on the move. For many years
the church was growing as a body while all the time living and
working in a never ending crusade. We had services every single
day of the week. Prayer meetings, Bible studies, worship services, youth services...prayer meetings...and prayer meetings.
I did not mention evangelistic meetings because every meeting
was considered an opportunity for evangelism. We worked as if every
day was the last day before the Lord's coming.
On Saturdays and Sundays, and some times in summer also on Fridays we would have open air services in streets
corners in 5 or 6 places,
plazas or parks during the afternoons and early evenings before the
services at church. At first the same team would go from one
place to another, and later on we had several team each going to
different places. After those flash services we would come back to the temple for a
"regular" service. People would come from those flash services to the
evening service at church, many times some would actually walk
back together with us for the meeting.
ome people would er the Saturday evening service we had some dinner and
. . . got ready for "after-midnight service".
We put tables like in a coffee house and serve coffee and some cakes or pies.
It was in some extent like a coffee house being the difference that we kept
some of the church environment. We use to go to the streets and invite
people to come. When we had some people sitting at the tables there we started
a service. |
Same place a few years later
Let me share with something about prayer. We did a lot of work in that church but
the most important thing we did was pray. The Lord showed us the importance of prayer.
For some time things seemed to be wrong; it seemed that all our work was in vain.
We were so engaged in God's work that we were leaving God behind if that is ever
possible.
Pastor Jose Manuel Carlos (Senior Pastor) received a burden of prayer from the Lord.
He felt he couldn't do any other thing but pray. He began to lock himself in his
room and pray, and pray, and pray . . . soon some other of us joined him; sometimes
we prayed together and sometimes each of us prayed in his own place.
". . . and the Lord added to the Church
daily such as should be saved." Acts 2:47
I used to think that to have a person converted I have to do my best to "convince"
that person. I thought that fulfilling the great commission meant to be constantly
talking to people. I was right . . . but not completely. The Lord showed us in
that prayer experience that the work is His.
It is not up to us to "convince" people: that is the work of the Holy Ghost.
It is not up to us to "convert" people: that is the work of the Holy Ghost.
It is not up to us to change lives:
that is the work of the Holy Ghost.
So, what is our work: Just to show them Jesus. We introduced Jesus to the people . . .
and we prayed for the people. The rest of the work was God's.
God taught us in that experience that when praying for the people, the Lord
Himself get those people in. Someone has to preach, right, but our preaching should
be just to lift up Jesus . . . and let Him attract everybody to Himself.
A question arose from that experience in La Boca Church: If the people that come to the
Lord and get saved are those who have been prayed for by someone . . . what about those
people that have no one to pray for them? As P. Billheimer said: "...the church holds
the balance of power of the universe...through prayer"
The biggest weapon we have is not preaching
. . . our biggest weapon is prayer.
 In the
picture above you can see the cross that marks the
main entrance to the "odd" church. |
