Blonde alert!

During our first weekend in Arizona, we attended a church called Love International in downtown Phoenix. Micah had been invited by a co-worker, and with a long list of churches to “try out,” we figured we might as well go to the one on the list we had actually been invited to. We did a little background research on the web to make sure it wasn’t a cult or anything, and when the church passed our online theology check, we decided to attend. We knew it was an international church, but we didn’t really know what that would entail…

Let’s just say I have never felt more Norwegian in my life. Micah and I, with our blonde hair and blue eyes, could not be more conspicuous in this church of a few thousand Hispanic congregants. I guess I wrongly assumed that an international church would preach in English with Spanish subtitles or something like that. I guess that shows how seflish and culturally self-focused I really am. This chuch was basically a Spanish-speaking church that also acknowledged an English speaking minority. For example, most of the songs were sung in Spanish and they would sometimes repeat choruses of the songs in English. During the message, the pastor preached in Spanish and then another pastor echoed him in English. Although it was a bit of sensory overload trying to take in the new place, two voices during the sermon, and two languages, it turned out to be downright amazing. If I had this experience on a mission trip, I would come home raving about hearing the message preached in two languages. But why can’t it be even more exciting to know that kind of sermon is going on in the USA, in the heart of Phoenix? When I got over my cultural insecurities, I found myself praising God that He has called such a large group of Latino people to believe and share His gospel. God is breaking into a culture that is traditionally stuck in a strange mix of loosely held Catholic beliefs and worldliness and transforming it with the Gospel of Jesus! This church has a congregation of a few thousand and is planting more churches. Although we haven’t gone back to Love International, we have actually become friends with Jack (Micah’s co-worker) and his new wife, Angelica. We have hung out with them twice since attending their church. We definitely appreciate their kindness, hospitality and the pretty amazing taco truck they introduced us to last weekend. And, yes, we were the only blondes eating carne asada as well…