Sunday... What A Day!

It was another day of many firsts for the team. We began with breakfast and a call home to Summit View. It was fun to talk with the congregation and share a bit of what we have seen. The church here meets Sunday night and usually on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings. This week is a little different in that they will meet on Wednesday and Friday. So for the morning we went into the city square. We walked past lots of little shops selling everything from clothes to backpacks and movies. We saw a Radio Shack and a Subway. We ended up in the middle of town where the large Cathedral is located. After all this we went shopping in a grocery store called Palli which is owned by Wal-Mart and the staff had Wal-Mart badges(there are 46 different stores owned by Wal-Mart in Nicaragua).

We then went for lunch at a fantastic Cuban restuarant. On Thursday night we are going to take the Pastor and his family for supper there. It was a great meal. We then walked back to the hotel and had some down time until church.

We were joined for a couple of hours by Allan & Beth Thrush. They are serving as missionaries with MCC in Managua. It was fun to hear their story and how God is using them. Allan teaches at a Seminary and Beth coordinates MCC's exchange program(US/Canadians coming here and Nicaraguans going to the US/Canada).

We then walked to the church. Currently they meet in a home while waiting for the church building to be constructed. Tonight because it was a larger group then normal we met in the street outside the home they normally meet in. On both sides of the street were homes and they literally cut the street off and had church. We got there early and took a lot of pictures of the kids. It was a neat experience. A couple of the kids new some english and we all learned a little more spanish.

The service started with a lot of introductions and then worship. We sang "How Great Thou Art", "Aleluia" and a number of other songs we knew in English. Pastor Doug spoke and had the sermon translated by Marshall. The kids did a dance for the congregation and the youth group tried but there was techinical difficulties. We felt bad for Pastor Noel because it was a beautiful service but we think he felt a bit bad about some of the technical challenges. But it was a meaningful service full of life.

During the service Pastor Noels daughter(she is about 3 years old) spent most of her time on our laps. She sat a lot with the Bowmans and then she sat with John Burns. Bowmans have recruited John for BabyZone! :)

For the team the evening was significant and reminded us that we often think of God as our God and in english terms. But tonight we witnessed God being worshiped and praised in a language other than our own. And to God it is all the same... people whom he loves honoring him in their tongue. It was a great night.

Another exciting part of the evening was meeting a woman named Sue Hay(may be spelled wrong) who is going with MCC for one year to Canada. BUT she has 10 days in Akron, PA for training. We may have the opportunity to provide housing for her and to even transport her to Elmira, Ontario. We will see. At the least we look forward to having her worship with us.

When we came home we had dinner and then a devotional and off to bed. Tomorrow we start early and will be working all day. The temperature is expected to be in the high 90's. So it is hot.