Tuesday nights for Team Colombia meant house church. We would leave the house, take an Uber, and arrive at Carlos and Liliana’s house at 6 p.m. One evening, we had a Bible study on the coming of the Kingdom, and I realized that over Outreach, I had been experiencing the Kingdom coming.
One of my favorite books growing up was called Tales of the Kingdom. It’s a marvelous story about a kind and powerful King who lives with his people in Great Park and the evil and tricky Enchanter who lives in the Enchanted City. The story tells of the King’s restoration of the city and the healing of the people living there. The book is an allegory for the Kingdom of God coming amidst the kingdoms of this world. A call-and-response repeated throughout the book serves as a reminder for the King’s people.
“How goes the world?
“The world goes not well…”
Christians in this world wrestle with the fact that the world “goes not well.” Brokenness is all around: in governments, countries, communities, in families, and even in ourselves. On our 5 month outreach in Colombia, we built relationships with youth who have unimaginably difficult pasts. As we took the bus every morning, we saw countless people living on the streets, forced from their homes by wars or guerilla groups. I have seen similar brokenness in the United States and in Morocco where I grew up. All of creation is groaning, longing for restoration, and Christians hearts should be broken by what breaks God’s heart.
Yet the call and response from Tales of the Kingdom doesn’t end at the brokenness. It continues:
“How goes the world?
“The world goes not well…
But the Kingdom comes!”
YET the Kingdom comes! The Kingdom coming is the good news of the Gospel. It is the presence of Jesus here and now, in the mess. There were moments on Outreach when I looked around and thought, “This is the Kingdom. This is how God created us to be and to live.”
- The Kingdom came when I saw youth, grown up in orphanages and with the world stacked against them, incorporated into a loving Christian community for possibly the first time in their lives in the foundation where we served.
- The Kingdom came on evangelism nights as we went to the local park with the news of a truth too good to keep to ourselves. Friendships were started through offering a cup of aguapanela and a conversation.
- The Kingdom came as my Vida220 team, from Costa Rica, Belize and the US, worshiped, prayed, and shared every aspect of life together.
- The Kingdom came taking communion together at house church, sitting in the grass of a yard, drinking the juice from rolled paper “cups”, and eating Colombian bread. We remembered together what God has done for his church around the world and in each of our lives.
As I look back over Outreach, these moments and many others become a living testament to the faithfulness of God and the hope yet to come. “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘the LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’” (Lamentations 3:22-24) For it is true:
“The world goes not well, but the Kingdom comes.”
Amen
Lydia Showalter
Vida220 Student
