The day started off with plenty of drama. Pamela woke up and came out to find Jorge sleeping on the couch, a bit bloody and banged up. Come to find out...
Jorge was driving and a car came down the street the wrong way, he swerved to miss the other car, ended up hitting a tree and flipping his car.
God does amazing things...one of those is to preserve life where it should rightly have perished. It is only God in His perfect sovereignty that sustains us each moment. He will continue to protect us.
Jorge is ALIVE!! He is walking, he is talking, he's going to be alright! He has some scratches and his shoulder is hurting, but he's going to be okay. God is epic and wonderful and is keeping us all safe. Dear parents of people on the trip, please don't freak out and worry, but know this instead, our God is mighty and tender. Even though the car flipped, even though the drivers side was squished, even though it ruined the car...Jorge is okay, he was even okay enough that he WALKED himself home after that wreck. God is bigger than our circumstances and He is protective of His children.
So, this is how we began our day on Sunday, with nervous tension and hearts of thankfulness.
After hearing only limited information about the accident (only that he was in the hospital and could still "walk"...) we had to leave for church.
The team hopped into an EPIC bus, it had great AC and huge windows, so the drive was great. But on the way to church we got lost. [Stolen computer!! JAMES is awesome!!] The address we were given for Iglesia Fundamento (Foundation Church) was not useful, thus for a while we drove in circles, eventually we did make it to church. (They couldn't start without us anyways...we had the pastor!)
The church was lovely! Even in a not so developed community the church building was beautiful. It was small area/footprint wise, but it had three stories and was rather neat. On the balcony (hi my name is james! ~ well...when I walked away from my computer, someone named James wanted to let you know he was still alive...so, yeah, he's alive.) all of us Americans sat listening close to our faithful translators, even still with fans blowing directly at Mr. Raimundo and also at us that only about 80% of the words were translated and about 90% of what was translated was understood by us Americans. So...we got most of the sermon.
After that we went to lunch at Mr. Raimundo's father's favorite restaurant. We got lots of food, tons of meat.
Lunch:
pork,
steak,
chicken (we'll come back to this one...),
two types of fish (Sea Bass and Grouper),
sausage,
Mondongo (cow stomach),
tostones,
plantano maduro,
garlic bread,
spanish tortilla,
water,
it was lots of food...
We came back to the main apartment (were the Grove/Raimundo group lives) and just chilled for a few hours, until it was time to walk over to the church we painted at to have evening service. There we used the head sets for the translation, and during offering the translator forgot to hit "mute" and so when he hummed along to Amazing Grace we listened to him...it was awesome! We tried not to giggle, but it did remind me to ask myself:
When I worship...why do I change my behavior if I know someone can see/hear me, do I worship Christ the same in public as I do when no one knows?
After church we just stayed at the church for about 1.5-2 hours letting people check their emails/post on their blogs, hold babies, sing songs, talk with new friends, and enjoy the AC... Then taking our new friends (and some old ones: Patrick and Emanuel) we all went to a pizza place.
Supper:
Pizza
Lemonade (FRESH!!)
After this we all went to our homes for one last night in Santo Domingo.
Please Pray for:
- Jorge Santana to recover from the crash.
- That we continue to have safe travels.
- That in Jarabacoa that we would bond as a unit and grow together in love.
In Summary:
Time is useless here.
Watches are just for looks not telling time.
Church is epic.
Singing in Spanish is fun.
Singing in English while everyone sings Spanish is hard to do.
Coke is amazing...
The Providence of God puts me in awe every time I get a glimpse of it.
God protects His children.
The 20 something passenger van was cool....literally.
I John 2:6
“whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
love,
Jessie Bear
No comments:
Post a Comment