Then and Now…
Just throwin’ a little Happy Late Easter out there for everyone!! As I was enjoying a day off and laying on the beach here in Villa El Salvador my mind wandered back to what was happening last year at this time. Always fun to think back a year sometimes…
Easter morning, I woke up early to get to Choir dress rehearsal on time. I arrived just barely on time and greeted the other choir folk and chatted as we were taking our places to start. We were told that there was a surprise for us and soon thereafter two stacks of choir gowns were brought in, beautiful burgundy and gold. I got Abe Friesen’s Moomoo I think. We were one step away from actually being a gospel choir…all we needed was to be black. The singing was great, the whole church wore bright colours to celebrate Jesus’ life!
Easter also signified the end of lent for me as well, last year. I had decided to give up ice cream for the 40 days before Easter so I thought it would be great to get a Cadbury Cream Egg McFlurry at McDonald’s(if you haven’t tried one of these you probably can still go and get one, they usually have the ingredients until they run out after Easter!!) I was also in the height of my biking days and thought that I should just bike to McDonald’s, it was pretty close. So Jay, my roomie, and I saddled up and set out as it was getting dark, on separate bikes of course… We arrived and found out that they were out of Cadbury ingredients!!! No worries, we…I decided to go to the next McDonald’s. But alas, they were out too! And now it had started to rain and the sky was eerily black as the sun was setting. So I settled for a chocolate fudge Mcflurry, as Jay and I were finishing our dinner (only ice cream) it started to Thunder and Lightning, oh ya, and hail!! And being two McDonald’s away from home we were not in the best of spirits (or should I say Jay wasn’t impressed I had insisted on biking!) Good memories!
Now in contrast to this Easter, not any out of the ordinary in eventfulness just kind of different. It started with waking up early, this time to go over the sermon I would share at an English service across town. I had been asked a few days earlier and had thought that I would speak on prayer, then I realized it was Easter! And on Sat. God changed the whole thing, it was on setting captives free and living in true freedom here and now.
Col. 1:27
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
This hope isn’t just for heaven but for the here and now!!! OK, I’ll stop preaching and get back to telling the story.
So 5 people crammed into a taxi, 4 in the back, not so bad. It was only a 30 minute drive, when the service started it was about 15 Americans (all world race except 2 missionaries) and maybe 15 Peruvians. The sermon went well and I opened it up for discussion after which went over well. Afterward we were talking to the Peruvian people that listened to the message and most of them could not understand much of what we were saying and could not understand us either… I wonder how much they even comprehended from what I said, no wonder there wasn’t much feedback from the crowd during my speaking!!
We went to the Cooley’s (Missionaries with AIM here who are our contacts) and ended up eating wonderful Alfredo and also a traditional Chicken dish with potatoes… at 4p.m. Talia was the Main Cook.
Everything tends to start late and run late! We then realized we had to get home for our service at 6p.m. which we were doing a drama in, so we crammed 6 people in a taxi this time, got home just in time, did a wonderful job of the drama and attended another service. After we were invited to a lady from the church who had become a Christian a month earlier, it was her 70th birthday party!!! We were not told until we got to her house, I love that about missions work, even with 5 translators we still never know what’s going on!! So we ate dinner and had cake. Then came back home for a movie and slumber party where we talked late into the night about nonsense and drew on each other’s faces!! See movie in my other blog.
You know, just a normal Easter of preaching and crashing birthday parties. Hope you enjoyed another glimpse into life here! I can’t believe that we are leaving in a week, it’s crazy!! Love you and miss you!!
