Emmanuel Church, Cayambe, Ecuador

Resurrection Covenant, Chicago, USA

This past Sunday we visited Emanuel Church in Cayambe where the very jovial pastor Jose Tuqueres preached on the first chapter of Exodus. As the Scripture was being read, all of a sudden I realized that this was the same passage that our wonderful pastor from Chicago, Aaron Johnson preached on just a couple of weeks ago! (With the miracle of technology we were able to listen to the podcast of that sermon.)

Both pastors focused on the “rebellious midwives”, Shiphrah and Puah who disobeyed the oppressive Pharaoh out of their fear of God. They had been ordered to kill all of the newborn Hebrew boys in an attempt to suppress the ever-increasing number and power of the Israelite slaves in Egypt. But the midwives let the babies live and God honored them and blessed them.

It struck me as amazing the way the Church around the world is connected. Although the physical, social, and cultural contexts of the two churches are so disparate, they are unified through their faith in God and His Word. In a personal way, it was a great encouragement to me as the “honeymoon phase” of our time here wears off and we begin to remember things we miss about our former home, especially our church community. Although there is beauty in diversity, there is also great comfort in finding commonality.

May we as a worldwide Church body be agents of faithfulness and obedience like the midwives in the ever expanding Kingdom of God.