Day 10
A Typical Sunday
Today I woke up several times in the night. The wind was fierce. I could see my curtains blowing. I have no need of a nightlight in my apartment. The streets are lit and Downtown is just
outside my window. So there is always
enough light to see and I could see my curtains blowing at 90 degrees. I debated closing the window, but I like
nothing better than to be wrapped up in blankets. Besides, it won’t be winter here forever.
But I couldn’t go back to sleep after 5:00, so I read my
bible a bit. I have two reading plans on
my iPad, the New Testament Epistles and one on praise. That is good for a Sunday morning. For breakfast I had a couple of cuñapé and a
left over piece of chicken. And as I was
getting ready for church, I discovered my bathroom sink is clogged. Hmm?
Will have to go find a plunger now or draino, if they have it here.
Last week I took a radio taxi to church, one from the barrio
of the church, so they would know shortcuts.
But that won’t help me know how to get there by myself, and my school is
a few blocks away, so I need to learn the way. I had a general idea
of how to find the church, so I grabbed the first taxi I saw.
“I have to go past kilometer 6,” I told the driver. The first part is easy. Santa Cruz is built around consecutive rings,
encircling the center of the city. I
live just past the 1st ring, el primer anillo. So I am counting, “1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.” Five rings each about a kilometer from each
other. After the fifth, I was looking
for a pedestrian bridge, because I know a little past that is the gas station,
where we take a right. About five blocks
later is the church. It usually costs 20
Bs. (7 Bolivianos = 1 dollar), but today he wanted 30 Bs.
The Road to Church
I manage to make it about fifteen minutes before church
started. I was greeted by Debbie and one
of the worship leaders, a lady named Erika.
She wants to learn English, so we made a deal that she speaks to me in
English and I speak to her in Spanish. I
then met Debbie’s oldest daughter, Hosanna, who is visiting from college and
who just completed a mission outreach to Thailand.
I don’t know a lot of people in the church, but most are
friendly and greet me. The men will
shake hands, then pat you on the back, and shake hands again – love it. A few hug.
One of the worship leaders, a black boy, named Noel, hugs me. There are not a lot of blacks here, in fact,
he is the only one I have seen.
The worship here is beautiful. It starts with vigorous praise songs, a lot
of clapping, and a few of the more spirited youths bounce a lot. But it always
is followed by some worship songs. I
have to tell you, that always moves me, often to tears. I truly forgot how much I loved the worship
here in Bolivia. I truly need this.
Pastor Percy preached a really good sermon. His emphasis was on the Church of Laodicea in
Revelation 3, but he talked about all seven of the Revelation churches. We read all of Revelation 2 and 3. Here are some the points that stood out for
me. "Consider how much you have
fallen” in chapter 2. We as believers
often become complacent after we have been believers for many years. It clearly says here this is sin in our
lives. In chapter 3 it talks about the
Philadelphian Church being open to what God wanted. This is our primary role as Christians to be
open to God. It is not our plans that
matter, but His. And lastly, the Church
of Laodicea always makes me think of America because we are so rich that we don’t
see how spiritually poor we are. This
will offend many people, but our churches are not alive like I see here in
Bolivia.
I decided to go home differently. I walked to the end of the street, about 5
blocks to the Doble Via la Guardia. That
is the same main road I took this morning.
It took ten minutes to walk the five blocks. I crossed the road, carefully, because cars
won’t stop for you. On the other side I looked for a micro (small bus) that
would go to the Ramada Market, which is close to where I live. It was crowded and I was standing. It is not six feet high, so it was not
comfortable, but at the fifth ring, about a quarter of the passengers got off,
so I could sit. By the time we got to
the Ramada, I figured I could walk, since the traffic was slower than walkers. That
only cost me 2 Bs. (remember 7 = 1 dollar).
The market was crowded, but soon I was on Iralá and almost
home. The wind was very strong. I’m not kidding about this wind being
strong. I am a big guy and was almost
blown over! The trip from church took a
little under one hour. I will have to
consider that when going to and from school starting in August.
Now I am home and writing you. I hope your day is good.
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