Something out of the ordinary and a great Sunday morning worship

Instead of having a regular family festival on Saturday evening, Pastor Rodolfo explained that we were going to walk along with the people on their pilgrimage to the Catholic church in Cartago, Costa Rica.  Here is a bit of information about the pilgrimage.  

In August the Basilica of our Lady of the Angeles is the object of extensive pilgrimage and visitation by about 2.5 million believers throughout Costa Rica and other surrounding countries, many of whom join in the celebrated 22-kilometer walk to the basilica during the Romería. Though many people start the pilgrimage from locations all over Costa Rica, some, as a demonstration of their piety, choose to crawl the 22 kilometers on their hands and knees.  (Click here to read more about it.)

We joined in with the walkers at a point inside the city and walked (and prayed) for a distance of about a mile and a half.  We then turned around a walked back to the park where we started.  While we were going against the flow, we passed out tracts called, "The Words of the Virgin Mary," to all who would take them.  It was definitely a bit intimidating to be going the other direction.  

I probably write a post about Sunday morning worship almost every time there are gringos around for a campaign.  I think it's because it is so impactful to worship together.  Sunday morning at IBVN San Jose was no different.  

Depending upon who is leading the music, occasionally we sing the worship songs in both Spanish and English.  However, this time it was a bit different.  Instead of changing the slides from Spanish to English for each verse/chorus, where they were able to they put the Spanish words and the English words for each line of the song.  As a result, the gringos were singing the English words while the rest were singing the Spanish words.  It was very cool!

Pastor Chris Sprires from First Baptist Church, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, gave the message, with Vladimir translating.  

FIVE YEARS TODAY

It's been exactly five years today!  On June 8, 2010, about 10:00 in the morning, our son, Jon, took us to KCI to catch our flight to El Salvador.  We checked four large duffle bags, each weighing 50 pounds, and each of us carried on a medium size duffle weighing 30 pounds.  Jeff and Paula Rhoades picked us up at Comalapa Airport and, thus, began our journey!

We're not the same people who arrived five years ago today.  Now we speak Spanish and are able to communicate with the people around us and we consider El Salvador "home." 
  
However, the most exciting things that have happened over these five years have not come as a result of what we have done, but what God has done in and through us.  Here's just a few highlights:

• We've been blessed to meet thousands of people from churches all over the US who have come to share the gospel on a mission trip 
• We've shared our testimony and listened to other's testimonies in hundreds of school classrooms.
• We've seen the gospel shared door-to-door and in the evening family festivals during more than 60 mission trips.
• We've seen hands raised in response to the sinner's prayer thousands and thousands of times. 
• We've been part of a great church that preaches the gospel and focuses on discipling new believers.
• We've made life-long friends as we've loved and been loved by our church family in all of the VidaNueva churches.  
• We've relied on God to lead and direct us in the work of the ministry here.
• We've witnessed what God can do with believers who are faithful to share the good news.  

We still have much to learn . . . and are still very much in the process of growing into the people God intends for us to be.  It's only fitting that we have an appointment at immigration today to renew our residency visa for another year.  We don't know what the future holds or how much longer we will be here, but we trust God to let us know when it's time to move on.  Thank you for being part of our journey; please continue to pray for us as we work here.

Here's to another five years.

Say Yes to VBS

I have had almost no Internet access this week, so I am very far behind on the VBS posts.

Today the team is taking a break and going to Antigua for the afternoon.  We are excited to reconnect with at least two of our Spanish teachers from summer 2012.

Sorry, no pictures because I have to use a computer in the business center.  Will catch up once I get back online.