Sunday, February 15, 2015
6:30 Wake up in my tent on the roof and go downstairs to brush my teeth in the now coed bathroom where we have to yell, “Boy!” when we enter.
6:40 – 7:15 Workout. With fifty-four people living in at the same compound and a ministry involving teaching 1-15 year olds the Bible and English this is probably the only quiet time I get. Also, I am drinking 2-3 cokes, eating 2 churros, and 2 ungodly portions of rice a day so this is quite possibly the most important part of my day
7:15 – 7:30 Shower and change. Once again I have to yell out, “Boy!”
7:30 Start my Bible reading. I am currently reading the Bible cover to cover, and this was a particularly big day because I was starting 2 Kings. Around this time, people start really stirring around the compound.
8:00 Our ministry contact, Joel, who is originally from the U.S, approaches me during my Bible study to ask if I would preach… that day. I hesitantly said I would and asked what time the service was. His response: 10:00 a.m. I thought okay I can do this. He probably only wants a five to ten minute testimony. I figured I’d ask first to be safe.
“How long, about?” (Please say 5 to 10 minutes.)
“30-45 min. Remember this is there church service.” (Great!)
“Sounds good.” (It’s a little late to back out now.)
“Oh, you also need to find a translator.” (Don’t worry. I have nothing else to do in that time.)
8:05 – 8:20 Write the sermon. At training camp and launch the world race people warned us that something like this could happen so last month in Ecuador I thought I should probably write a sermon just to be on the safe side. I thought servitude would be a great topic to preach. However, that’s as far as that plan ever got, and now I was paying for it. So I wrote my sermon as if I was writing an SAT prompt.
8:20 Ask Rose to translate my sermon. Thank God she said yes!
8:21 – 8:40 Mouth my sermon on the roof of the compound. My friend, Mason, came up and asked if I was preaching on the roof that morning. I said I was because I’d be preaching downstairs at ten. He laughed and said, “Figured so.”
8:40 – 8:45 Eat breakfast. That day we had two pieces of bread with a small portion of ham mixed with eggs.
8:45 – 9:00 Finish mouthing the sermon on the roof.
9:00 – 9:05 Change on the roof into the one dress shirt I have. Praise God that I’m a guy!
9:05 – 9:45 Go back to Bible study. The morning is already stressful enough, and there’s no reason to add to it. I needed to step away for a second. Oh, by the way, drinking lots of water is my nervous tick so I yelled out, “Boy!” a lot that morning.
9:45 Bye a Pepsi. It’s five o’clock somewhere.
9:46 Gather the worship team and Rose to discuss the service.
9:55 Pray with the worship team.
10:00 I’m ready to go, but la pastora and the congregation aren’t there. I think maybe they run this like The U of M and start class ten minutes late on “Michigan Time.”
10:10 Nope, they aren’t on Michigan time.
10:30 The congregation arrives. It’s a new service for them so this consist of about twenty Latinos and our 55 gringos.
10:45 La pastora arrives and the service starts.
10:46 – 11:10 The worship team kills it while I’m sweating through my shirt because we’re in a small poorly ventilated room with 75 people in it in the middle of the dessert.
11:10 – 11:50 I preach and Rose translates without a hitch. She did an amazing job at maintaining the heart of the message and the emotions of the sermon through the language barrier. To my surprise the message seemed well received by both my squad members and the people of the church.
11:50 – 12:00 La pastora gives a few closing remarks while I down some more water.
12:00 – 12:05 Shake hands and hug the congregation.
12:05 – 12:10 Change back into normal people clothes and I can breathe again.
12:10 – 12:30 Read Three and Out, an amazing book about the Rich Rodriguez era of Michigan football. (Some things never change.)
12:30 Eat lunch.
God Bless and Go Blue,
Chance
