Saturday pm, July 3, 2010 (pages taken from my journal on my Mission trip to Mexico)
This evening we went to a cell group service. Some of the church family is unable to get to the church itself because they live too far out, or they do not have a mode of transportation. Some of these people got together and formed a cell group in their neighborhood so they could still have church. Usually they meet in the park in the middle of the neighborhood, however, this evening, it was raining. A LOT. So we had to have it under the 1-car carport, however, under it was a car that didn’t run.
So……we removed the car from under the carport! LOL That is how dedicated we are to people hearing God’s word! And by “we”, I mean the boys. ;)
Don’t hate….it was RAINING!
(Photos taken outside our Hotel San Lorenzo)
This is normally completely DRY and devoid of any water at all!
After the guys moved the car, we set up chairs under the carport and waited for the church members.
But, the problem was, the more church members there were, the fuller the carport got, until pretty soon, 3 of us were standing outside the carport under our umbrellas getting DRENCHED! Poor Jeff was soaked up to his knees, Ben’s umbrella did little to protect him, so his shirt and the back of him was completely soaked! And me…….well…….I gladly gave up my chair to one of the Mexican ladies I got to know at the Ladies Bible study.
And to take pictures. (Come on…..you knew that was coming right?)
Yes, please notice that rain falling! Yes, I was soaked! I didn’t realize how wet I was until I got into the van and sat down and the back of my shirt and my pants were completely soaked! But, like everything else, I was IN Mexico, NOT working, doing work God told me to do…….so I’m not complaining! :D I was wet in MEXICO with beautiful pictures! LOL
We had worship in Spanish (which is odd) and the sermon Gordon preached was completely in Spanish. Have I mentioned yet how much I LOVE my Pastor?
I realized standing over an hour in the pouring rain, how hard it is not knowing the language. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the worship and the sermon was not really intended for me, but for aiding and building up the Mexican church family we were there to help. I totally understand that. But for me, it was hard hearing and not being able to participate. It’s difficult to really worship when you are concentrating on the words you are trying to pronounce in a language that is not your own. The melody is familiar, but the words are completely alien. And then you end up giggling over trying to pronounce “Poderosa” and all that you can seem to say is “Ponderosa” which was a steak place I went to with my family when I was a little girl. Then you realize how good a nice, thick steak would taste right now as you are standing in this dripping rain.
Wait……no, I’m supposed to be worshipping, not envisioning steak. Concentrate, Dana! Stop LAUGHING! This is worship and NOT supposed to be funny!
Crap…….it’s gone. All attempts to worship in Spanish is gone. I give up. I’m singing in English. I’m sorry, I just can’t do it. Sorry, PePe, I know you are sitting directly in front of me and you are singing in Spanish and my singing in English is probably throwing you completely off. But, you are welcome for not dripping my umbrella all down your back like Ben has done for the last 20 min.
Then Gordon started preaching, and he had originally said that he would translate himself as he preached. Yeah, that didn’t happen past the first 2 minutes of the sermon. Then, he asked Michael his opinion on what he had just said. Wait……you’ve been preaching in Spanish for the last 15 minutes, Michael speaks about as much Spanish as I do, so the look on Michael’s face was PRICELESS! Gordon didn’t even realize he had preached the entire sermon in SPANISH and had translated 0.5% of it into English! LOL
It was amazing to see this little Mexican church pull together under this little carport! The lengths they go to just to worship and hear about God. How many of us here won’t even get up in the morning? How many of us don’t even try when we have every means available?
It makes me sad to think how very spoiled we are in America.