What an incredible blessing it has been to spend month 11 of the World Race in Puerto Rico. The people that we have been privileged enough to spend time with this month have shown us an unparalleled hospitality. The amount of free, delicious, home-made Puerto Rican food that we have eaten this month is in itself staggering. The title of this blog is a phrase we heard often this month. It means “bon appétit” in Spanish and was said by many as we sat down to eat together. I can only hope that we blessed our hosts as much as they blessed us.
One unique aspect of this last month was that each team was at a different church every week. We worked with the Christian and Missionary Alliance network of churches in Puerto Rico, so each church we worked with was related to the others. Moving around so much was challenging, but it kept us on our toes. Slacking off at the end of the trip was not an option as we were meeting new people in new places and starting new projects every week. It also gave us the opportunity to see different parts of Puerto Rico which we may not have seen if we had stayed in one place.
We spent our first week painting and tiling in a church in Manatí. We also shared about the World Race at their prayer night. That week my team really connected with the pastor and his two kids who are around our age. We had so much fun laughing and joking around with them. They took us to an incredible cave by the sea and then to the beach one day. We even got to hang out at their house to watch a movie and eat amazing food. Little did we know that this kind of hospitality would become the norm!
That Sunday we shared stories, songs, and a sermon at a church closer to San Juan. Even though we were only with the congregation for that one service, they paid for all of us to go out to lunch!
The next week we were at a small church in Levittown. We scraped and painted the ceiling of the church, as well as cleaned and organized some upper rooms. At their prayer night we also shared about our trip. The congregation of the church was fairly small, so some youth from a completely different church worked with us. They gave their time and resources to help out at a church that wasn’t even their own.
After Levittown we travelled via ferry to the island of Vieques off the east coast of Puerto Rico. We arrived to find that we would be staying in air conditioned rooms with a fully stocked fridge in the kitchen! We spent a few busy days doing yard work, painting the church, speaking at a retirement center and sharing at church. The congregation blessed us with a bonfire worship night, a trip to the beach (with kayaks!), and of course copious amounts of delicious food.
The next week, our ministry fell through, so my team had time to spare. This ended up being a great opportunity to cook and clean for the teams we lived with, dive into theological discussions for hours, as well as make hilarious videos (see here http://vimeo.com/100956436).
Last but not least, our final week of ministry on the World Race was in Carolina, where we painted the church’s fence, did street evangelism, spoke at a rehab center, and of course shared at prayer night. This congregation not only cooked for us, but also gave us money to buy our own groceries. The cherry on top was one night when we ate a gourmet dinner made by a member of the congregation who is a chef! Three guys at the church also dedicated their week to being our “body guards” and helped us out with everything. It was a great last week.
As the World Race comes to a close, I can’t help but feel smacked in the face by all this special treatment. It gives me such a beautiful picture of the church operating as one body working towards the same goal. I hope to take home this same sense of hospitality, of leaving a person better off than they were before. God’s love is unconditional, free, and limitless. That’s how I have felt loved this month in Puerto Rico and that’s how I hope to love as I finish the World Race and start the next chapter of my life!
