Random Thoughts On A Sunday

We almost hit a cow on the way to church this morning. All of a sudden, one appeared in front of our car. Karen slammed on the brakes, we went around it and kept going. Oooooh kayyyyyy....

Church starts at 8:30 AM. We leave the house at 7:30. The kids are dismissed from el templo (the sanctuary) after the singing in the morning. They go into a Sunday School room (one of the school's classrooms) where they are given a snack: a cup of Coke and a half an empanada (or a sandwich or sweet roll or some other small snack).

Nestor is telling the Bible story at Saturday night's "Sunday School".

This morning before the older kids left the snack room for their class, three of the boys came up to the front of the room to recite their memory verses ... THE ENTIRE CHAPTER OF HEBREWS 11!!! And our kids gripe about having one new verse a week!

We were supposed to go to the zoo after church this morning with the other young people. Instead, it rained, so the zoo trip is off. Stephen was quite disappointed, but since I'd been there before, I knew we weren't missing much (sorry Asuncionites - or are you Asuncioners? Asuncionians? Asuncionos? Asuncionarios?) It would have been way too muddy. Maybe Wednesday. Maybe not.

Paster Pedro asked the congregation to kneel for the final prayer today (all the other times we've stood). As I was kneeling on the cold, hard, tile floor, I had to think about how much of an issue it was for our church when we were choosing carpet for the new sanctuary; which carpet would hurt our knees the most? What a contrast. And what a humbling action to kneel together before the Lord this morning.

Pastor Pedro, his wife Mary, Pablo, Matias and Marilyn in their home.

At the end of the service, Pastor Pedro called Fred, Nancy and myself up to the front to thank us for coming and he wanted to pray for us as this is our last Sunday here. The church also had a prayer for us the first Sunday we came, and what a touch of a blessing it was for us. The first time, I had a feeling of excitement as Oscar prayed for our family and our anticipated ministry here for the next few weeks. This time when Pastor Pedro prayed, I had a hard time holding back the tears. After the prayer, many of the brothers and sisters streamed past, hugging and kissing us and whispering "Dios te bendiga" (God bless you) in our ears and I had no choice but to cry openly.

Liliana and her husband, Jose Luis
Marlene (Pastor Dario's wife)

I will miss everyone. I don't know if or when I'll ever be able to come back to share time with these brothers and sisters, so it's hard to say good by. I'll be back in school on Tuesday, so Liliana only said, "See you Tuesday!" We weren't ready for parting words yet. Marlene said, "I'm not ready to say good-by. I'll see you later this week." Pastor Pedro (who only lives two doors down) hugged us tight, said something a little too fast for me to catch, and then hugged us tight again. The children asked if we're coming back to school, and when informed that we were, they ran off to play. It's premature to say goodby to Jason because I'll be seeing him again this week, but I did thank him again for letting me be a part of his classes this past month. It meant so much to me and I'll miss tagging after him every day! Ah yes. We still have 3+ days left, and I'm already having a hard time saying good-by!

After the boys wake up from their naps this afternoon, we're having a birthday party for all the little boys. Stephen's birthday is on the 19th of May, Timothy and Christopher on September 15 and Edson on November 15. Since we've never had a birthday party together with this group of cousins, we're having one now! There will be gifts, balloons, cake and ice cream and a pinata!

The older boys also got gifts of CD's, the Caballero's gave me a Mother's Day gift of an Alex Campos CD that I've fallen in love with here and Nancy and I gave Karen the gift of a new coffee pot (pictures and story to come). We're all enjoying gifts today!