From the October-January 2010 Issue
Fight The Good Fight of Faith
Jose and Elisa Rodrigues
‘Fight the good fight of faith’ (I Tim. 6:12). Our days aren’t any different to those of the past. Christianity always has been a fight and it will be until the end. Paul told his son in the faith, Timothy: ‘Fight the good fight of faith’. It is quite clear that everybody is fighting for one reason or another; many fights are going on everywhere. However, as we know all too well, not all are good fights. We as Christians, members of local churches, are called to fight the good fight of faith.
In Alto do Moinho
The church at Alto do Moinho has recently celebrated its 23rd anniversary. In our own situation it has been a fight, with many ups and downs. There have been times that we had a sense of losing ground, or even doubting whether we were going in the right direction, doing the right thing. Looking back, I think that I express the feelings of many others when I say: ‘Though we haven’t done as we should, the Lord has given us much more than we could have thought of.’ The year 2008 and the first half of 2009 weren’t easy, but we can say this much – the Lord has blessed us thus far; He has given us many blessings and we are encouraged.
In these past months we were able to do some work to enlarge the main room in the church building and it now has seats for eighty-five people. All the work was done before the celebration of the church’s 23rd anniversary. At that time four young men were baptized; all of them have been with us from childhood. It was to a certain extent a moment of emotion for many in the church. The four to be baptized invited family and friends to come to the baptismal service and in the end more than fifty visitors turned up. Altogether more than 130 people attended the meeting. More than a hundred fitted in and the others were looking in from the next room and through the windows from outside.
Talking point
This had a good impact on the local community, and the neighbours talked about it between themselves. In fact, this has been a real encouragement over these last months. Neighbours have been asking questions about the church, two ladies are attending some meetings and others have promised to come. With the four baptized, the church now has a membership of fifty-two. The ladies’ meetings have been another good encouragement in numbers and in spirit. Our last Sunday school outing was one of the best that we can remember. Some time ago I was asked by some church members to consider the possibility of starting a home Bible study. We gave this a try and it has been well attended, with good reports coming from it.
For the first time the church has sent a student to the EMF School of Biblical Studies in Welwyn. Rita is 22 years old and has just finished her university degree. For some while she has had the desire to be involved in Christian work, so she applied and was accepted to do this year’s course, starting in September 2009.
We can’t say that we have fought well, but we can say that the Lord has been gracious to bless and encourage us to go on seeking to fight the good fight. Fighting isn’t enough; we must seek the good fight!