Five words hung in our gathering place in Nicaragua as we worked with Amigos for Christ the week of Thanksgiving. Each word was designed to be the theme of a day. Throughout the week I realized the unifying power of doing things together.
The first word was ‘play,’ which is interesting since we don’t often associate ‘play’ with ‘kingdom’ activity. The focus was the importance of coming together as followers of Jesus to be a witness to the communities we would serve. The ‘play’ was actually a quite challenging task of climbing Cerro Negro, one of the many volcanoes in Nicaragua.
“We are all going to meet at the top of the volcano!” shouted John Bland, the founder of Amigos for Christ. “If you have to stop and rest, don’t worry… we have no time limit. Even if some of us need to be carried up the mountain, we’re all going to celebrate our accomplishment up there!” John pointed to the top of a solid black mountain. This was our day of play.
John started Amigos for Christ fifteen years ago as he and his family moved from Atlanta to Chinandega. He is a humble guy and a Christ-like leader. When he said we were going to meet at the top of a volcano, none of us argued. We assumed he knew what he was talking about, so we all started climbing… all one hundred twenty of us.
Our team of eighteen from Atlanta joined another seventy from various places in the States. Thirty Nicaraguans also joined the group, the strongest of which stayed at the rear to assist those who struggled on the climb. The temperature approached ninety degrees at the beginning, but thankfully dropped as afternoon clouds moved in. While the fastest made the climb in forty minutes, it took three and a half hours for John’s prediction to come true… one hundred twenty people cheered at the top of Cerro Negro.
We experienced what many of us already knew to be true: ‘play’ can produce ‘teamwork’ and ‘teamwork’ can build ‘family.’ We don’t know how Jesus and the apostles played. But we know they climbed some mountains together; we know they lived in community; and we know they understood unity.
Perhaps Jesus intends such experience for all His followers. Let’s not hesitate to play together in His Name. And let’s join His prayer for God’s children to be one.
“I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” John 17:20-21