Community!

Before becoming a YWAMer (almost ten years ago), I used to think "Christian Fellowship" referred to a church event. Like "the youth group is getting together for tacos" or, "the women are going to have a "ladies night out". It always made me think of a song we have in Spanish, from that Psalm that talks about how it's good and delightful for the brethren to dwell together.

I sometimes laugh a little inside when I sing it in church, because Christian fellowship has become so much more than getting together on Sunday's or Wednesday night, to talk about the Bible or sing... My name is Jazmin Garza, and I'm living at a YWAM base, in Argentina right now. Through that, I've learnt the other meaning, the kind that starts at the shower line, at 6am, when you're waiting for the girl with the long hair to get out of the shower; the kind that involves sharing with an Ecuadorian, an Argentine and an American for lunch (when we all have very different cultures about what "lunch" means).

It's awesome! It's so real... um... and it has its challenges. It's one thing to sing the Psalm when you gather wearing your Sunday's best, it's another to actually live everyday with people, getting to know them at their best and worst. It brings a different kind of closeness, people become more attached more quickly. it makes you so vulnerable, it opens your eyes to "cultural principles" as opposed to "world wide truths". So the confrontation with everything you believe may not be the smoothest, but it's certainly a blessing. Church happens in the midst of daily conversations; worship happens as you clean toilets together, nations bless each other and look out for each others needs. I admit it's not as poetic as it sounds, yet it is truthful, it's enriching.

To me Christian fellowship is not longer some church term for a scheduled meeting with a certain group. It's life itself. We were created for relationships, and living in community brings that blessing!