Unity in the body

It really makes you expand your view of the body of Christ (the church) when you are standing on another continent talking to women who believe in Jesus in another language.

Mama Jeanine is the wife of Pasteur Jean Marc (wrote an earlier blog on them) who used to be the president of the CMA church here in Gabon. So she often is asked to speak at women's retreats. Well this past Saturday she asked me to give a short message before her message. The theme that day was something along the lines of "looking in the same direction for a victory". The words that hit me were "meme direction" (same direction). So I ended up talking about John 17 - where he prays for the people in the future that will believe and prays for their unity. I also talked a little about the body of Christ and how difficult it is if the hand wants to go in one direction and the foot wants to go in another direction (it is difficult to do this move in a skirt!).

Although I have been called "preachy" before, my goal is always to teach. In my case I love interaction and so I tend to ask questions (so I know the students are paying attention and getting it). This took them off guard at first since they are used to listening to a preacher and not necessarily having to respond to them. Even in school, their teaching method is by lecture. But when I started talking to my feet, they started giggling and opened up a little more.

Are you really surprised that I talk to my feet? I mean I talk to myself all the time!! Where have you been? Ok so I was trying to explain that the body has to listen to the head, because the parts of the body don't necessarily know all that goes on. For example, in order to walk there is the movement of the feet, but there is also the breathing and the blood pumping... so I was asking my feet if they knew that the heart was pumping the blood or if the lungs were breathing. I think they were a little nervous in front of an audience, because they didn't respond.

After that I gave my testimony and then Mama Jeanine spoke. We hung out with the women for the rest of the day as they discussed things, sang, and prayed.