The riches of the poor

It's early morning here and everyone is still sleeping but me. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good chunk of what's on my mind and heart this morning before one of the kids wakes up. If this blog ends rather abruptly, it will be that I need to get one of them before he/she wakes up the rest of the household.

Last night I attended the 2nd consecutive nightly meeting of Heidi and Rolland Baker of the ministry in Mozambique. They are a couple like Priscilla and Aquilla in Acts in that the wife has more renown than the husband.

Last night Rolland spoke, while my previous blog entry is about Heidi's talk from two nights ago.

In introducing Rolland, Randy (a church ministry colleague who has spent time in Mozambique with the Bakers) described him as a "minister of joy." I had observed Rolland during the ministry time the previous night. It appeared like nearly everyone he touched would start laughing. I saw him do this to at least 30 people that night, including to some people I know. He wouldn't tickle them, but just touch them on the hand or shoulder. I saw this last night as well.

He himself appears to be a joyful person who doesn't take himself too seriously. His wife's speaking style, while also full of compassion, is more intense than his. But he did have a lot of deep and challenging stuff to say about the church and Christians today. In that way, he reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Adrian Plass.

He said that one reason that they do "mission trips" from Mozambique to the West is to bring the riches of the poor to the West. Despite from being one of the poorest countries in the world, Christians there are full of joy, which is what they bring to the West. He and Pastor Surpressa Sithole from there both mentioned the verse of "the joy of the Lord being our strength." Without this joy of the Lord, why would people want to be like Christians or hear their message?

One expression that I like is "Mission today is in, from, and to all nations." Their exporting the joy of the Lord to wealthier nations is an example of this.

Rolland also spoke about the priority of relationship. The bottom line of Christianity is relationship with Jesus. Everything else eventually doesn't satisfy. These things include healings, miracles, great preaching and teaching, praise and worship, tapes/CDs/DVDs, and even effective ministry. He mentioned about how close Jesus really is to us.

He mentioned how Christianity has tended to move toward asceticism. To be a spiritual master, one has to learn this or that and deny oneself this or that. He mentioned there being 6 and 8 year olds "spiritual masters" in Mozambique doing healings and other powerful works of God.

A couple days ago our helper Jeanette went to visit la Sainte Chapelle in Paris. This building has beautiful stained glass that goes from Genesis through Revelation and tells the whole biblical story. When the windows were originally created, it was for the vast majority of the population who couldn't read. It helped make accessible through images the biblical story.

So much of spiritual formation, at least from my background, involves knowing how to read and learning things intellectually. Those viewed as "spiritual masters" are often those who have studied, memorized, or read the most. It is true that the mind is part of spiritual formation. However, it never seemed fair to me that, in this approach, those who didn't have access to the book resources of the West could only go so far.

However, if being a "spiritual master" is based purely on one's love for Jesus, then a 5 year old or even an illiterate person could be one if they loved Jesus and were growing in their relationship with Him.

Rolland also mentioned that their ministry in Mozambique has been seeing the Sermon on the Mount lived out. This definitely is an area for reflection and meditation.