West Port Experiment

Since our last post sharing Fatima’s housing problems, we had quite the roller-coaster trying to help her find a place to land. We found one seemingly ideal opportunity, but it fell through. My son, Gabriel, and a friend of his helped her move out of her old place on the day of her eviction, with nowhere definite for her to go. Her things went into one of our elder’s garages for the time being. The clock ticked.

A few generous options were offered from folks after I sent this appeal to pastor friends in Rhode Island, but both of those had serious downsides. Eventually, some veterans in our congregation opened their home for her to stay and have been helping her also with getting a better job. She is qualified to practice phlebotomy, but for several reasons has been stuck in a dead-end, low-paying security job. We’ve seen her in church and hope to see her even more. Please continue to pray for her, as this family blesses her with hands-on love in Jesus’ name.

Then, I had another seminary intern for a short, intensive mission weekend. Mr. Daniel Navarro, a Presbyterian student from Mexico City, Mexico, and a student at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary came along side me in my ‘territorial vineyard.’

We had a number of good visits with folks in the S. Providence parish. One of them was “Mahim,” a Muslim from Somalia. A rather polite, friendly fellow, though he tells me he’s a rather devout attender of the mosque. I’ve actually visited with him a couple of times before in recent years, while on my rounds. He’s a Computer Science student at URI, which immediately gave me a point of connection, given my son Gabriel’s studies. From my notes, I see that my last two little ‘Gospel homilies’ with Mahim involved Joseph as a type of Christ, saving his brothers through their cruel betrayal, followed the next year by our Lord’s words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. This time around, after a little friendly exchange, I shared about Daniel’s upcoming message that weekend from Genesis 2 on the Bible’s teaching on marriage. I told him how much our culture has degraded this holy institution, from God’s original “one flesh” design.

Daniel was definitely helpful, especially as conversations took us into deeper waters linguistically. My Spanish is still in the shallows, but I’m swimming further and further out these days! One fellow, “Jorge,” was a Guatemalan. Quite the talker. Didn’t make a whole lot of headway with him, but encouraged him to watch the livestream of the Spanish outreach broadcast. We also were invited in to visit with a family that has been quite receptive over the years, welcoming us into their home, doing studies with us, and once coming to church. The youthful grandmother was babysitting the young grandchildren. We could tell she was worn somewhat thin; sadly, Daniel told me, this was not at all uncommon in Latin American society. The gray-headed end up taking more of a burden than they should from their grown children. We were able to read Scripture with her, pray, and invite her to tune into the livestream.

One conversation with a Congolese young man went rather well–despite the fact that he came to the door straight from having showered, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist! But he didn’t bat an eye, and neither did we, as we introduced ourselves and fell into the thick of law and gospel. We could tell by his eyes and gestures that he was moved. He couldn’t come to church the next day, he regretted, because he was going up to New Hampshire that afternoon. But he was rather earnest in assuring us that we’d see him soon.

While the main approach is door-to-door, I sometimes have some little unexpected things develop along the way. One was seeing “Leah” sitting on her stoop and hollering her cheerful hello to us. She explained that her youngest little boy couldn’t come to church anymore, since his father was now paying child support and had him over the weekends. But she assured us we’d see her the next day. And after a few no-shows after door-knocking, I decided to lean over to the window of a fellow idling in his car by the curb. A child of the church, it seemed, who was wandering far from the Lord. We spoke to his conscience, and his very words betrayed his hypocrisy. The arrow struck. But the Spirit will have to drive it through, for nothing can conquer the natural man but a supernatural act of God.

We were very blessed by Daniel’s preaching, and the very competent translation by our Puerto-Rican American brother, Richard Santos. Sadly, the older Mexican couple who have come the last two times were unable to make it, with some sickness going around. But true to form, the lady sent her husband, “Geraldo,” with some produce from their garden a couple days later as a kind of apology for absence! It may be a trickle, but it is heaven’s trickle. O Lord, grant thy Spirit’s rain to pour down and make this little brook a mighty, rushing stream!

Learn more about Reformed Parish Mission.