Officially meet my new team! Team Huzzah!! Has a great ring to it : )
I don’t have any updates yet as to how the man in my last blog is doing, but I wanted to give an update on what the rest of ministry has been looking like.
Besides doing house visits, we’ve had a lot of opportunity to work in the church. They have a bible study on Tuesday nights from 7:30-9:30, Women’s bible study on Wednesday nights (same time), Thursday is Prayer and Worship night (same time) and Saturday is Youth Group (same time). On Sunday’s we have two services at 10:30 and 7:30 with Sunday school during the first service. We attend most if not all of these services and meetings. Sometimes we give the message and other times we’re in charge of worship. One of my teammates plays piano and the rest of us try our best to sing in Spanish to songs like “Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord,” “Revelation Song,” “Your Love Never Falls.” I’m best on the tamborine but since they don’t have one, I’ve been trying my hand at the drum set. I’m at least able to keep the beat and add a little bit more flare. I also ended up buying a recorder. Yes, a recorder, like the ones you practice in first grade during music classes. It was only 20 Bolivianos which is equivalent to ~ $2.50. Worth it. I’m working on learning Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter theme songs…maybe one day I’ll be good enough to play it in church for worship.
Last Saturday for Youth Group I was asked to give the message. I talked on the difference between knowing about God vs really knowing God and what evidences we would see in our own lives when we really know God. i.e. We would have great boldness, energy, contentment, and thoughts of God.
This Friday we had another event fasting for the new church construction they’re fundraising for. My team was asked to fast from 8:30 am to 1 pm and were also in charge of doing 30 minutes of each: prayer, adoration, worship and a message. I got to give the message again, this time on fasting. I didn’t grow up fasting and it wasn’t until my second month in Honduras did I fast for a full 24 hours. I read the chapter on fasting in the book, “Celebration of Discipline,” and learned a lot about biblical fasting. Whether or not it’s a partial fast, full fast, or public fast our focus should be on God and we should make sure we submit ourselves with humility, doing it with a pure heart, before beginning.
During the week for an hour each day we have been helping out at a public school with students with special needs. We do activities for half an hour such as games and songs to help with fine motor skills, body parts, and direction. We then join them in their classrooms which seems to be arranged based on age. The first day I had a student who ran out of the room and picked gum up off the bathroom floor to try to put it in her mouth. Teaching is not my first ministry I would sign up for but it seems like this month God has it in store for me to practice.
We’ve also been helping with construction of the church in any way we can, from shoveling and moving dirt, to knocking down concrete walls. We did find a dead cat that died between two concrete walls…that was sad. I said a few words for it before we scooped it into a trash bag.
On Saturdays we have been putting on a two hour event for kids in the community. We teach a bible skit, this week it’s Noah’s Ark, we play games and then have a time of prayer for all the kids.
The month has been rewarding in being busy doing a lot of ministry, stretching and growing in different types than I’ve done before. We have one more week before heading off to Europe. Month 5 has come and gone so fast!
