Sunday, February 27th

We have learned by now that mornings in our village will not be quiet. At any time, you might be fortunate to wake to music playing, children laughing, cows mooing, roosters crowing, dogs barking, or chickens walking with nailey toes on your tin roof.Or, if you are unfortunate, you might wake to the tortilla man. He comes racing into town early in the morning with a red cooler strapped to the back of his motorcycle with bungee cords. While the sun is creeping above the foggy hills, he mashes his horn with the urgency of Paul Revere and offers fresh tortillas to the world. Things like this quickly remind us that we are in a very different-than-normal place and we are not here for comfort but for a mission.This Sunday morning, we practiced several songs for the church. Upon arrival, we walked into a small church the size of a three car garage where two dozen people were gathering. The service was three hours long and featured a five man marimba and probably 15 songs. We sang several songs during the service and then did a shortened children’s program.It was a beautiful afternoon, so we drove to watch a nearby soccer game where some of the church men were playing in a recreational league game. After they won, we drove to a spring fed lake with some of our hosts and whiled away time sitting on a dock enjoying the beautiful scenery, practicing Spanish, and fishing wayward Nalgene bottles from the lake.After a short break back at the house, we prepared a children’s program for the two-hour evening service. We taught the congregation two Spanish songs and had a great time. We are trying to invite some family over each night for dinner so we can put into practice the rules and vocabulary we have learned in the past four weeks. Dusk fell and we chatted with families while a cool breeze rustled nearby banana trees and a skyful of stars twinkled down on us. The amazing thing about the body of Christ is that it is the most diverse group in the world.Russ, for the team