Rocky Cape Christian Community

Shy faces of "La Iglesia de Jesucristo" (Jesus' Church) in Colombia, South America, 2006. This church group, not of Anabaptist origin, gets along without the use of photography.

Some time ago a friend of mine, Rodney Mast (who, as a young chap, lived across the road from us in Mexico) travelled through Colombia with some other Mennonite friends on a mission trip. Getting off the bus at Mariquita, in the high Andean department of Tolima, nearly 500 m above sea level, an elderly women walked up to him with a smile. Wearing a white prayer veiling she identified the travellers as believers "por el señal de la autoridad" (by the sign of authority) on the sisters' heads.
 
No less surprised than her, Rodney and his friends asked her from where she came, if there were others like her, and how they could meet. Within days they found themselves in humble circumstances with a very large number of eager, earnest believers, all struggling to catch a glimpse of these rare gringos (Americans) that seemed to know and follow Jesus. The old lady's church, it turned out, consisted of around a thousand people meeting in fifteen different villages and highland towns.
 
Around a hundred faithful brothers lead the work of the "Iglesia de Jesucristo" in the Colombian highlands. Springing from the work of a native pastor and his wife, about half a century ago, the work is entirely indigenous and Spanish speaking. Pastors serve without pay. Children are homeschooled and young men, holding to Jesus' non-violent teaching, refuse to take military training. Divorce and remarriage in the church are unknown (and not accepted). Church members do not vote or take part in Colombia's stormy politics. Church discipline is rigid, but with a high priority on reconciliation, and all members, although they are poor, share one with another what God has given them of earthly goods.
 
Should this surprise us?
 
A number of years ago I met a similar situation (an indigenous church that follows Jesus) in the sprawling slums of Cd. Bolivar, on the Orinoco River. Others have turned up in Central America, in Mexico, and the highlands of Peru. Obviously the Spirit and the Word get the work done very nicely without us.
 
And sometimes with us. . . .
 
A number of years ago I got a carefully written letter on lined paper -- a school teacher's hand I might have guessed -- from Colombia. Pat Stendal wrote in English how, with her husband and children, she had come to that country's Sierra Nevada in the 1960s, from Minneapolis, Minnesota. There the pagan and totally "uncivilised" Kogi tribe had gradually warmed up to them, given them a hut to dwell in, and they had built a fellowship of believers. Now, after most other missionaries left Colombia during the rash of kidnappings, murders, drug wars, and the breakdown of government and civil order in the late 20th century, the Stendals had stuck to their post and the Lord continued to bless their work. Their children had grown up and married Columbian believers. Guerrillas captured one of their married sons, and they learned to live, year after year, in the "valley of the shadow of death." But Jesus' non-violent way became their guiding light and warring groups of all factions came to respect them, as more and more were added to church communities in the bush. One of the Stendal sons, in company with local believers, took to fishing the giant catfish (200 kg) of Amazon tributaries to provide a living for them all. And somewhere, in the thick of things, Pat wrote, they had come upon the book "The Secret of the Strength" about the early Anabaptists. An immediate affinity was formed.  
 
Pat's reason for writing was to know whether the book could be translated into Spanish for the encouragement of persecuted believers in Colombia.
 
It didn't happen for several years, but this week, I got a surprise.
 
* * * * *
 
Far from the deep green valleys of Colombia, far from Australia where we live, a young boy found the Lord in the Mexican city of Tlaxcala. Fifteen years old, attending a city high school, he not only believed in Christ and knew his sins forgiven. He set out to follow him. That led him into strange and wonderful territory.  
 
Realising that no church in Tlaxcala -- ancient city in Mexico's Volcanic Axis -- really meant business with Christ, young Josué Moreno set out to find the real Jesus and his real church community. One thing led to another. Josué learned English and sought far and wide. A little group of believers grew up around him and his family. He read and studied much and this week to my astonishment I received a fully translated copy of the book "The Secret of the Strength" in Spanish, done by Josué just before his nineteenth birthday.  
 
I contacted Pat Stendal at once and connections are being made. For Latin American readers there will need to be something other than digital or printout copies. Maybe that will happen -- but whether it does or doesn't is not the main thing. What makes my day is to know that Jesus faithfully builds his church in our time. No worries (as Australians would say)! The story goes on.
 
Then it was the Anabaptists in Europe. Now it is our turn. English, Spanish, white or brown, "third world" or wherever --  no background, language or culture stands in our way anymore. Is this our last little chance in time? No matter where, or who we are, let us work and pray, let us encourage one another, and build one another up, until we see His face again.   
 
Many years ago, when I first came to know the Colombian city of Cali, followed by Barranquilla, Bucuramanga, and Cúcuta (I fell in love with the people and highland villages of Cundinamarca) I often had the cheery melody of a Colombian believers' song floating through my mind:
 
Cuán gloriosa será la mañana, cuando venga Jesús el Salvador,
Las naciones unidas como hermanas, ¡bienvenida daremos al Señor!
No habrá necesidad de la luz el resplandor, ni el sol dará su luz, ni tampoco su calor,
Allí llanto no habrá ni tristeza ni dolor, porque entonces Jesús el Rey del cielo, ¡para siempre será consolador!
 
In translation:
 
How glorious that morning will be, when Jesus the Saviour comes,
United like brothers and sisters, the nations rise to welcome him.
Poverty swept away in the light of his splendour, the sun surpassed in light and warming rays,
No more tears. No sadness, no pain. Eternal comfort in Jesus, when he, the King of Heaven comes.  
 
Only Colombians, survivors of more than a century of bloody violence -- three hundred thousand civilians killed in little more than a decade, gunshots in the night, never-ending rounds of kidnappings, vengeance, cadavers on the street when the sun comes up -- could fully appreciate these words of Felicia Beltrán's lovely song.
 
May the morning of his Kingdom break upon us soon!

 
Should you like to know more about the "Iglesia de Jesucristo" and other indigenous churches of Latin America, contact Daniel Huber of the conservative Mennonites (who are continually sending people to visit seekers in places like Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, the West Indies and Peru, besides to England, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, China, India, Turkey, Egypt, throughout the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia). He is a minister, living in northern Texas, USA. 
 
Should you want to know more about the Stendals and their work click here. 
 
If you want to write to Josué Moreno in Mexico, you may do so either in Spanish or English.
 
Yours,
 
Peter
 
Rocky Cape Christian Community
19509 Bass Highway
Detention River, Tasmania 7321
Australia
www.thecommonlife.com.au