The Lord's Day/World Cup

World Cup in Central America

View from the front of the church

 

Today is Sunday and we had to be up and ready to leave the Bible camp by 7:00 am.  After church today, we will be checking into our hotel which will be much closer to the church we are working with.

 

It was wonderful to worship again with our Costa Rican brothers and sisters.  They are so kind and truly greet each of us with a “holy kiss”.  That isn’t our custom in the US, but it is very nice.  The church members have another sweet custom, they call us “brother” or “sister”. Sunday school started at 9 and there was one class for the adults and one for the children.

 

Christian, the preacher, led the class with a lesson on elders.  He explained that most churches in Central America didn’t have elders because everyone expected them to be perfect men.  We had an excellent discussion with lots of participation.  We had about a 15 minute and then church began.  Terry preached a sermon about Noah.  He taught about how Noah obeyed God even when it didn’t make sense.  There was a white board and he also drew a soccer field (It is the World Cup finals today!). 

 

He wrote in the dimensions of the soccer field and added the size of the church building.  He asked us to imagine a boat the size of the church building.  Even though it is a decent size building, it was small in relation to the soccer field.  He then drew a sketch of the arc to show that it was even bigger than a soccer field.  I may not be doing a very good job explaining the lesson, but  Terry did a great job tying it all into obeying God even when it doesn’t make sense.

 

Besides a great lesson, the song service was beautiful.  This congregation has learned many of our devotional songs and it seems like they all have beautiful voices.  The service lasted till around 12:30 and then the ladies of the congregation fed us a lunch of salad, chips, and a rice dish with a little bit of everything in it.  Muy delicoso!!!

 

We left the church building around 3 pm and we headed to our new hotel.  It is very unusual and quaint.  It reminds you of what you would expect in Costa Rica.  We are currently having a little siesta while some of us watch the finals of the World Cup.  I don’t care much about it, I’m just resting and typing this blog.  We have to meet back in the lobby at 4:30 so we can go back for an evening meal and evening worship.

 

Oh, every year I learn new Spanish words.  When we were door knocking, the Costa Rican used a word and even our interpreters didn’t know how to spell it.  It is “upe” (2 syllables, pronounced oo-pae) and it basically means, “Anybody home!” 

Inpromptu massage during fellowship, Who said the church of Christ don't have fun!!  :)

 

We headed back to church Sunday for another meal.  I have never eaten rice in so many delicious ways.  Chase Turner from Louisiana delivered another great message for the evening service. Each night of the campaign this week, a meal will be served for all of the visitors.  Tonight, it was more of a reception, and fresh fruit was served.  You haven’t eaten until you eat fresh fruit in Central America!!  We had pineapple, watermelon aka sandia, kiwi, mango, apples, grapes, strawberries, bananas, and an interesting slimy fruit that kind of looked like a “snozzcumber” from the book, The BFG. I probably asked 5 times what it was and it was something like, aguacade.  I’m sure that isn’t the name.

 

 

Apparently this hotel has a yoga studio and some of us were talking about doing a short class.  Chase’s wife teaches yoga and he said he would do a 30 minute class when we got back to the hotel.  Well, the studio was locked up, so Chase led about 10 of us in a 30 minute class in one of the many lobbies.  It was great even though we didn’t have mats and were on a tile floor.  I think we’ll be able to work out something tomorrow night so we can use the studio!!

our hotel



 

 

Another fun fact about this cool hotel called Hotel Don Carlo, it was one of the residents of two presidents of Costa Rica.  Check it out on their website!! www.doncarloshotel.com

 

 

Hasta manana!!

 

PJ  xoxo