The only down side to all of this is that at the end of every week, we have to say goodbye to the congregation that we're working with so that we can move on to the next church that needs help. Saying goodbye to the church that we left most recently was hard. The people there displayed such a great love for God—it was awesome. But I know that God has other places where he wants us to work.
So, I understand now why the Apostle Paul always was talking about how he longed to visit the churches of the New Testament. It must have been hard for him, building deep spiritual relationships with people and then having to move on.
I also understand a lot of the other things that Paul wrote about, like how he seriously loved each church and wished that they would grow stronger and stronger in their faith, how there were times that he wished one church would change its ways, and there were other times when he praised a church for its actions.
During this trip God has changed my perspective about how churches should work and made me think of ways that I would like to make changes in my own church. God is good and I love how he never misses an opportunity to inspire us.
Jon Roman, a student at the University of Texas at El Paso, is serving with Go Now Missions in El Vigia, Venezuela.
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