Sabbath in a new church!!!

"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of the LORD.'" Psalms 122:1

Once again Sabbath was rainy and cold. I think God only allowed it to rain on Sabbaths so that the work would not get delayed by rain. The cold dreary weather didn't dampen our spirits, since we were going to worship for the first time in the new Freire Seventh-day Adventist church that we had helped build!

Many Freire residents had been invited, including VBS children, our van drivers, the head of the local medical service, people whom we had photographed, and just friends that we had made in the community. The church was "decorated" to keep out the rain, since the roof was only finished to just past the back of the platform. We gathered at about 9:30 for singing and special music. I (Rose) sang a song in Spanish, and as I stood up front, I could look out the front door frame and see two taxi drivers in their yellow hats peeking over the fence to watch. It was my favorite "picture" moment of the whole trip, but I didn't have the camera!

We then broke--or should I say shifted--into Sabbath School classes, and then came a program by the VBS children and more special music. One in particular really touched our hearts: Reuben Sanchez, a local member who has recently graduated with an engineering degree, sang "Thank you for giving to the Lord" in Spanish. For those of use who knew the words in English, it brought tears to our eyes. Dick Duerksen then had the sermon, with Danny doing a dynamic translation job, challenging and encouraging the members to reach their community. After the sermon, Israel, an elderly local member, played a couple of hymns on his big harmonica.

We dismissed from church a little chilled but warm in our hearts. People lingered for quite a while after the service. It was hard to leave. Even though we couldn't really converse, it was wonderful to give the local members a hug and say, "Feliz Sabado!" I think that for a lot of us that was the first time we really felt a strong connection with the local church people, as opposed to just the local church building.

The remainder of the Sabbath was mostly resting in preparation for a very special Sunday. Luke took the girls for a walk in the drizzling rain with the Kretschmars and had a neat encounter with Carmello, a local old guy. And before supper, he took the challenge of entertaining the restless teens with Bible pictionary. They weren't worn out!

It didn't get dark in Freire until after 9 pm, so after Sabbath evening worship, we all just crashed.