Sunday church--an all day affair!

We had a great day of worship and fellowship at IBVN San Jose yesterday. The house where we are living is fairly close to the church so the pastor, Rodolfo, and his wife, Rocio, come by to pick us up so we don't have to take a taxi. We are usually the first to arrive so I try to help Rocio get things ready. Every Sunday during the greeting time they have cookies and iced tea/coffee.

Yesterday Stephen sang David Crowder's "Oh, How He Loves Us" (in Spanish.) Luis David played along on the guitar and I stood up front and held the microphone for Stephen (they didn't have a stand.) Believe me, it's the closest I'll ever come to singing the special music. The second time through the congregation joined us. It was really cool. Pastor Rodolfo preached on Colossians 1:9-14 which is one of my favorite passages. I'd like to say that I understood it all, but "no."

After church a group of 5 families went to lunch at a restaurant on top of a mountain. The views driving up were amazing, but, unfortunately, we didn't stop for pictures. The restaurant specializes in carne (meat); they don't serve chicken. They use a huge barbeque-style grill for almost everything: pork, beef, baked potatoes, and grilled plantains. You can see the smoke from the grill as you drive up to the place. The portions are huge; Stephen and I should have shared the medium order of bistek (thin steak.) Everything we had was very good. Sunday church and lunch is an all-day affair. They picked us up and 9:30 and brought us back at 4:00.

I've attached the few pictures we did take: a not-so-good picture of the two of us, Carolina and her precious daughter, Rebeca; view of the table and then Pastor Rodolfo and his wife, Rocio. All of these families have welcomed us like we're long-lost friends. I can already tell that it's going to be difficult to say good bye at the end of February.

We have our first grammar test today so we spent the rest of the evening studying (although Stephen found some time to catch part of the game.) As I posted on Facebook, all this studying reminds me of the good days at Southwest Baptist! Please pray that we will be able to remember everything and that we won't make any careless mistakes!