Today we visited a Ecuadorian Baptist church. We missed the regular service and only got to visit the Sunday School which didn’t make a lot of sense since it was in Spanish.

Yes. This is Popcorn and dried banana slices. Its an appetizer and not that bad

Iglesia Means Church

People leaving the Baptist Church.

One interesting thing about the church was that a dove had somehow found its way into the sanctuary and was flying around during the service.

The dove.

The dove was desperately trying to get out of the church but it couldn’t find an exit. This reminded me of churches back in the states where the Gospel is desperately trying to get outside but is trapped inside the church walls.

Josh, Amanda and Jessica hiding from the cold rain.

That afternoon I took a nap because I wasn’t feeling that well. One group of students visited the mall which had a grocery store built in. They compared prices between Ecuador and the U.S. A bottle of fine liquor was less expensive than a six pack of American soda. For the most part, they found that the prices are higher in Ecuador than in the states. Yet, the food at restaurants is cheaper. The only explanation I can think of is that labor is much cheaper in Ecuador.

One of our group meetings where we share what we learned that day.

That evening we visited a restaurant that served American style food. I got food poisoning/a bacterial infection in my stomach. The moral of the story is only eat American food in America.

Our Hotel

Spiritual Food Poisoning

That night as I knelt in front of the toilet I asked the Lord what the Spiritual lesson was in this. I thought about it and realized that food poisoning to the church is bad doctrine. Our bodies have systems in place designed to process and filter out unclean foods. The body of Christ also has these systems. I think one of the roles of the Prophet is to protect the church from bad doctrine and false prophets.

Occasionally, we eat something that is beyond the ability of our body to reject. Our whole body becomes poisoned and In order to become clean it must to go through the miserable process of flushing these toxins. I don’t know if the word miserable is strong enough.

The temptation in this situation is to treat the symptoms and take medicine that will limit the diarrhea and vomiting. This Pepto Bismal approach is dangerous because it keeps the poison in the body causing long term damage. The body must know the danger of the toxins and not be fooled into thinking they are ok

When the Body of Christ consumes bad doctrine the process for removing it can be just as miserable. I think many Christians, particularly those with pastors hearts, do everything they can to make an artificial peace. They apply spiritual Pepto and cause the problem gets worse instead of better.

I think many church splits can be traced back to the pushing important disagreements into the background and letting them fester. By treating the symptoms we ignore the disease and to damage to the body. There is a time to make peace but there is also a time to detox. Tranquility is not always good.

Some words like Internet are universal.

Sorry if my commnts today are a little off topic. Day 4 will be more business related.

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