Celts and Cowboys

Anna Huws | 21:43, 28th February 2014

Flying half way across the world to a warmer climate is never a bad idea, and this January I was the fortunate one! I exchanged a cold and rainy week in Wales for the dry and arid climate of Scottsdale Arizona. The purpose of my visit was to spend a week at Scottsdale Bible church, learning and building relationships with our partners across the ocean.

At first glance the most striking thing for a woman from a poor Welsh valleys community was the overwhelming size of this church and its wealth. A big campus (yes a campus and not just one building), a big staff (over 100 paid staff members), large ministry departments, multiple Sunday services and an enormous budget to work with. Everything there is on a large scale with the best of everything it seems, which one can’t deny is impressive and appealing.

As the week went one and I started to get beyond first impressions and hear the hearts of the people who so faithfully serve there, I began to realise that this wasn’t a church that had ‘arrived’ and had figured it all out, but rather they were brothers and sisters like us who were on a journey to bring the light of Christ to a dark world. Despite how it looked on the outside when I compared this grand church to my own humble church background, we were able to share many of the same joys and frustrations.

Despite the large numbers attending the church, over and over again I heard about the challenge of trying to reach people for Jesus in such an affluent society as well as the challenge to motivate and encourage their own congregation to give more of their hearts for the gospel. I realised that some of our struggles in Wales are not dissimilar. People are dulled to their need for God because there are so many things to fill our lives, and this is also one of our struggles inside and outside of the church. I’m reminded of the words of Jesus who says, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” What a challenging environment for the people of Scottsdale!! 

Thankfully Jesus didn’t leave it there but gave us a lifeline! What is impossible with man is possible with God. So as I had to say goodbye to new friends across the waters after an enriching week of sharing life with them, I pray that God would indeed do the impossible there. I pray too that God would do the impossible in Wales and to the ends of the earth.