I hope my lunch is good
Well the missions team from CIY came and went and it was a good time...until everybody got sick with the black plague, or whatever it was. In any case, it was gross, and if I had pictures I would not share them because if you saw them you would present with at least one of the symptoms that was running rampant on the second floor of Marcelo and Sandra´s house between Saturday night and Tuesday morning.
Besides the virus (which the team from CIY took back to the United States with them yesterday), everything else went very well with our mission trip to Baba. We sent a team of 15 people from the church in El Recreo with the CIY group to work with the church there in the town of Baba. Baba is a more rural place than El Recreo and there were banana plantations everywhere! it was kind of cool to drive through all the banana trees, especially at night on the way back from the presentations we would do in the different areas of Baba.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was the house-visits that we did. Normally, I am not a fan of the house-visiting. I think it´s weird and uncomfortable, and I don´t like it. But that is a product of my culture. In the U.S. you can´t just walk up to a stranger´s house, knock on the door, and say, "can I share a little bit of the Word of God with you?" and expect to be received well. Here, you can knock on the door and ask to share, and they will invite you in, feed you, give you something to drink, and have a real conversation with you about what you are sharing. It is very very different. So, as someone from the U.S. it has taken me a few years and a few house-visits to get used to the concept that it´s ok to do that here. And during this trip to Baba, I really enjoyed it.
We went to visit one morning in the neighborhood where we had done a presentation the night before. Once we arrived the women from Baba who were leading our group realized that no one had brought the addresses of the people who had asked us to come visit them. We stood around for a minute trying to decide what to do since the car wasn´t coming back to pick us up for another two hours, and we decided to just go walk around and knock on some random doors. The first house we went to was Gloria´s house. She came out onto the porch to talk with us a little. She seemed a little quiet and so we asked if we could pray for her before we left. She said yes and we asked if there was anything specific she´d like prayer for. She told us her father was sick and asked if we would pray for him so we said yes and then she said, "he is out back, let´s go" so we followed her around to the back of the house and he was there. He was sitting in a hammock and his legs looked pretty bad. We prayed with him and then we left and went visiting to a couple other houses. The last house we visited that day was Anita´s house. She was outside sweeping her patio and we stopped by and said we were with the group who did the presentation last night. She got a big smile on her face and said, "Yeah, my kids were there, they loved playing the games with you and singing the songs" so we talked for a while about playing with the kids and how fun it was for us too, and after a few minutes she said, "well...is there anything i can do for you? what are you doing here again, do you need help with something?" and we looked around at each other and then looked back at her and said, "we were going to ask you the same thing...is there anything we can do for you or pray about for you?" we all kind of laughed and she laughed and said, "please, come in, sit down" we hung out in her house for about an hour talking and sharing with her and her mom. It was really cool, and it was really sad as well. Her mom, Lupita, shared about how her son had been killed not too long ago, in December. It was a sad, sad story and everyone was crying. We prayed with Lupita and after we prayed with her, Anita said, "you know what, I´d like to be a Christian too" so we prayed with her as well, and encouraged her to find a church where she could begin to learn more about Jesus and be surrounded by the encouragement and love of a church family. It was a really beautiful day.
A couple days later we decided to go back and visit again in the same houses. Only this time I was leading the group! It was really crazy because I was the one doing all the talking and all the praying and all the sharing of scriptures and thoughts. And I was translating back and forth for the English-speakers who also wanted to share. I felt very bold, and I felt it was a boldness that did not come from within me, but rather from God, and that was a neat feeling. We went back to Gloria´s house first and this time went back to the back to share a little encouragement from the Bible for her dad. We shared with him about prayer and how we believe we don´t need someone to talk to God for us, that we can talk directly to him whenever we will, and that God wants exactly that-to have a relationship with us. After a while, I began to talk with him one on one and asked him how he was feeling and he told me he hurts all over. I asked if he is taking medicine and he said he was but could no longer afford it. I asked Gloria how much the medicine would cost and she said it was $30, so I asked some of the gringos if they would like to help me pay for the medicine and they said yes of course. We told Gloria we´d like to buy some medicine for her father, and she was very grateful. She went and told her mom, who was inside her house, that we wanted to buy medicine for him (Luis) and her mom (Luis´s wife) came out to thank us. We prayed again for Luis, and this time, as we prayed for him, he grabbed my hand and began to cry and when we finished praying, he said, "thank you.....i hope you will come back and visit again." we assured him that the people from the church in Baba would be back the following tuesday. then we said goodbye to Gloria and her mother and when her mother hugged Katie, one of the girls from the team, she (the mother) began to cry...to sob, really, and then Katie started to cry because she was hugging a woman who was crying uncontrollably and thanking her. And then everyone started to cry. It was really beautiful. I hope that they see God´s provision in that, and that they don´t think it was anything that we did. And I hope Luis gets better.
We went to see Anita again too, but we couldn´t spend much time with her because we had stayed so long at Gloria´s, but we spent a nice time talking with Anita, encouraging her and being encouraged by her. I hope she will find a church that she can be a part of. Please keep them in your prayers. I will try to get back here soon with some pictures to add to this post. For now, it´s back to normal at the church here in El Recreo. I have to go because Roberto just came and found me in the internet cafe to tell me that his mom is inviting me to their house for lunch! MMMM Lunch!!!!! See ya!
Besides the virus (which the team from CIY took back to the United States with them yesterday), everything else went very well with our mission trip to Baba. We sent a team of 15 people from the church in El Recreo with the CIY group to work with the church there in the town of Baba. Baba is a more rural place than El Recreo and there were banana plantations everywhere! it was kind of cool to drive through all the banana trees, especially at night on the way back from the presentations we would do in the different areas of Baba.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was the house-visits that we did. Normally, I am not a fan of the house-visiting. I think it´s weird and uncomfortable, and I don´t like it. But that is a product of my culture. In the U.S. you can´t just walk up to a stranger´s house, knock on the door, and say, "can I share a little bit of the Word of God with you?" and expect to be received well. Here, you can knock on the door and ask to share, and they will invite you in, feed you, give you something to drink, and have a real conversation with you about what you are sharing. It is very very different. So, as someone from the U.S. it has taken me a few years and a few house-visits to get used to the concept that it´s ok to do that here. And during this trip to Baba, I really enjoyed it.
We went to visit one morning in the neighborhood where we had done a presentation the night before. Once we arrived the women from Baba who were leading our group realized that no one had brought the addresses of the people who had asked us to come visit them. We stood around for a minute trying to decide what to do since the car wasn´t coming back to pick us up for another two hours, and we decided to just go walk around and knock on some random doors. The first house we went to was Gloria´s house. She came out onto the porch to talk with us a little. She seemed a little quiet and so we asked if we could pray for her before we left. She said yes and we asked if there was anything specific she´d like prayer for. She told us her father was sick and asked if we would pray for him so we said yes and then she said, "he is out back, let´s go" so we followed her around to the back of the house and he was there. He was sitting in a hammock and his legs looked pretty bad. We prayed with him and then we left and went visiting to a couple other houses. The last house we visited that day was Anita´s house. She was outside sweeping her patio and we stopped by and said we were with the group who did the presentation last night. She got a big smile on her face and said, "Yeah, my kids were there, they loved playing the games with you and singing the songs" so we talked for a while about playing with the kids and how fun it was for us too, and after a few minutes she said, "well...is there anything i can do for you? what are you doing here again, do you need help with something?" and we looked around at each other and then looked back at her and said, "we were going to ask you the same thing...is there anything we can do for you or pray about for you?" we all kind of laughed and she laughed and said, "please, come in, sit down" we hung out in her house for about an hour talking and sharing with her and her mom. It was really cool, and it was really sad as well. Her mom, Lupita, shared about how her son had been killed not too long ago, in December. It was a sad, sad story and everyone was crying. We prayed with Lupita and after we prayed with her, Anita said, "you know what, I´d like to be a Christian too" so we prayed with her as well, and encouraged her to find a church where she could begin to learn more about Jesus and be surrounded by the encouragement and love of a church family. It was a really beautiful day.
A couple days later we decided to go back and visit again in the same houses. Only this time I was leading the group! It was really crazy because I was the one doing all the talking and all the praying and all the sharing of scriptures and thoughts. And I was translating back and forth for the English-speakers who also wanted to share. I felt very bold, and I felt it was a boldness that did not come from within me, but rather from God, and that was a neat feeling. We went back to Gloria´s house first and this time went back to the back to share a little encouragement from the Bible for her dad. We shared with him about prayer and how we believe we don´t need someone to talk to God for us, that we can talk directly to him whenever we will, and that God wants exactly that-to have a relationship with us. After a while, I began to talk with him one on one and asked him how he was feeling and he told me he hurts all over. I asked if he is taking medicine and he said he was but could no longer afford it. I asked Gloria how much the medicine would cost and she said it was $30, so I asked some of the gringos if they would like to help me pay for the medicine and they said yes of course. We told Gloria we´d like to buy some medicine for her father, and she was very grateful. She went and told her mom, who was inside her house, that we wanted to buy medicine for him (Luis) and her mom (Luis´s wife) came out to thank us. We prayed again for Luis, and this time, as we prayed for him, he grabbed my hand and began to cry and when we finished praying, he said, "thank you.....i hope you will come back and visit again." we assured him that the people from the church in Baba would be back the following tuesday. then we said goodbye to Gloria and her mother and when her mother hugged Katie, one of the girls from the team, she (the mother) began to cry...to sob, really, and then Katie started to cry because she was hugging a woman who was crying uncontrollably and thanking her. And then everyone started to cry. It was really beautiful. I hope that they see God´s provision in that, and that they don´t think it was anything that we did. And I hope Luis gets better.
We went to see Anita again too, but we couldn´t spend much time with her because we had stayed so long at Gloria´s, but we spent a nice time talking with Anita, encouraging her and being encouraged by her. I hope she will find a church that she can be a part of. Please keep them in your prayers. I will try to get back here soon with some pictures to add to this post. For now, it´s back to normal at the church here in El Recreo. I have to go because Roberto just came and found me in the internet cafe to tell me that his mom is inviting me to their house for lunch! MMMM Lunch!!!!! See ya!
posted by Amy at 10:10 AM
4 Comments:
That confirms it. You always write your subject after you write your post.
Don't eat anything that had recent insect activity.
So great, that CIY team is bring an awesome virus to the united states. Good job CIY. I hope they do a better job with that than the actual conference.
On a serious note, good job! I wish we could go house to house like that and tell people about the gospel without people getting mad at us. Keep on keepin' on.
- Luntangclan!
Wow Amy!
Reading your latest blog entry was so uplifting it brought tears to my eyes.
Thanks for the email update, I left you a message on your other blog: Be Dared to Change a couple weeks ago just to let you know that Juan & I are praying for you and families that will be blessed by your ministry.
Hope the bug bite situation is better, Jesse & I did some research & other than washing stuff in very hot water, sleeping in a hammock sounded like the best solution.
Thanks for keeping us posted.
~Ruth Herrera
paddy, i am trying to avoid the insect food...but sometimes it is unavoidable. there was no insect activity at Roberto´s house...his mom is an excellent cook. the food was amazing.
luna...do you really hope they do a better job spreading a virus than putting on the conference? or did you just want to slam the conference and didn´t know how else to squeeze that in there?
ruth, thank you for the encouragement, and for researching the bug situation. haha, it seems to be a tiny bit less insecty around here...or maybe i am just getting used to it. yuck. i will only be posting on this blog from now on because it´s not reasonable for me to keep up three of them. it just takes too much time. oh well.
thanks for the encouragement nathan. i wanted to post a video today but all the fast cybers are closed, so i am in the super slow one...i will try to get the video and some pictures up in the next couple days. i asked my friend pablo why all the cybers are closed today and he said, "because the people here are lazy on mondays" hahahaha.
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