| Hi! Just to let you know, I've moved the blog to LucasGentry.com, so all of my Costa Rica updates can all be in one place. Just click on the link below to see our newest update information! http://www.LucasGentry.com |
Today, we had one of those, "Family all around the world" moments. David and Shelley took us to "La Iglesia del Nazareno de Tibás" (Tibás Church of the Nazarene), because David was the special speaker this morning. The people there were wonderful to us. Even though our Spanish still has a lot to be desired, several of the members there spoke with us and welcomed us to their church. At least one told me, in a Spanish-English mix "This church can be home for you. You can tell that it is home for us." It was so endearing to be welcomed so completely into their congregation, even though we know that they know so little about us. They know our names and they know that we are family, and that's about it. And that's enough.
I would love to go there every Sunday, if there is a city bus that we can take. When the lady invited us to come back, I told her that I would love to, if I can figure out what bus I would need to get there. Shelley told me later that someone said that they were starting a few new bus routes in the next week or two, and she's pretty sure that at least one of them would be able to take us within about four or five blocks of there. If that turns out, it would be great! That's way better than the 4.5 km walk it would be (maybe a little over an hour's walk), through neighborhoods that we don't know, in a city we're still discovering our ways around.
This morning's Sunday morning service was so cool, though. We arrived before Sunday School, and the teacher really did a great job. He definitely did his homework, and it really showed. It was about 45 minutes of Bible Learning, taught out of Judges chapters 17 and 18. He used maps of Israel and showed us where several people groups were during the time of the people in Judges, and he explained how the locations of a couple tribes of Israel contributed to the background to the story. It was so very interesting. Most Bible teachers that I have heard have about 60-70% story and 30-40% Bible in their messages. Like, they use the stories to keep your attention, and then just throw a little Bible in to give you something to relate it to. This guy was like 90% just chewing on the Scriptures, giving us more and more background information. I seriously had the thought, "I'd go to seminary if it would help me teach a Sunday School class as good as this guy." I later found out that he hasn't gone to seminary at all, he just really does a great job. It was still inspiring and made me really thirst for the Scriptures, even though I only understood about 35% of what he said.
After this, David got up and spoke all about some of the amazing things that God is doing in various parts of Costa Rica, and all around the Mesoamerican Region. If any of you ever have the chance to hear these stories, or to hear him speak, I highly recommend it. (Again, the link to their Nazarene profile is http://app.nazarene.org/MissionaryProfiles/profile.jsp?profile=39794 if you ever have the opportunity to meet them in person. They are a wonderful family! While I'm at it, Stephen and Anne Sickel are another wonderful couple that are the Work and Witness Coordinators here. Their link is http://app.nazarene.org/MissionaryProfiles/profile.jsp?profile=148079. Good food comes from their oven.)
All being said, today was pretty wonderful. The people were great, and we had a day chalk-full of Spanish input to practice with. Thank you for the prayers and the encouragement. It means so much to us. Yesterday, I had asked prayer for Spiritual Encouragement, noting that typically it's hard to get a lot out of church services when you don't speak enough of the language, and God answered prayers completely today. Church was wonderful, the songs were fabulous, and we were blessed beyond hope by the people. Thank you again.
No comments:
Post a Comment