January 15, 2017 - Church and Water Heaters
Saturday morning, I walked around my
neighborhood taking pictures of various things to use in upcoming blogs. It was cold and it was windy. I was out of the house from 9:00 till
probably around 1:00, maybe later. I
didn’t notice right away, but my water heater stopped working. I went through out my day, writing blogs,
cooking, washing dishes, and cleaning the house a little, not knowing what
happened. Around 9:00, I was washing
dinner dishes and noticed the water was not getting hot.
It was still cold outside. In Bolivia, I have never seen indoor heating. It doesn’t get cold enough for it. Maybe a few days this time a year it is cold, but is only in the 50s. But still, that is an uncomfortable shower.
I tried reading the instructions, but I was not having any success. I gave up after an hour and called my landlady. It was already 10:00, so I knew I would not get anything done tonight. She asked if I was going to church on Sunday and I said yes. So she promised to send him after.
Sunday morning, I found myself in church. I now recognized some songs the praise team sang before. One is about having a fiesta, singing and celebrating before the Lord. It makes sense. If you love God more than the world, why shouldn’t you celebrate? Why should your worship be bland and boring? I don’t want to step on any toes, but maybe this is why our churches are turning off the young people. At Berea Church, easily half are between 15 and 25. This morning I was surrounded by young men; five in front and three on the side. All were singing and worshipping. This church is raising men to lead.
Well, during the worship service, my landlady called me. I turned off the ringer, but kept feeling it buzz. I typed a message that I was at church. She messaged back that the water heater man could only come this morning. If not, it might be Tuesday until he came. So I debated what to do and decided that I needed to go home.
I rushed home, but from the church to my house is 20 minutes by taxi. I was worried I would be late, but kept telling myself that Bolivian time is different from American time. If he says 11:00, he will be there at 11:15 or later.
I was late getting home, but the water heater man was later. The first time he came by two weeks ago, he was in and out in two minutes. Today it took him longer. It was Saturday’s wind that blew out the pilot. The wind from an exhaust tube was keeping it from staying lit. He said that might happen every time we have a surazo (the cold south wind that blows from the Antarctic). Before he left, I had him teach me how to get it going again.
I didn’t have enough church the week. Berea Church is on the edge of town and I am in the middle. It takes about 20+ minutes to get there by taxi and longer by micro. But I wanted to be there that night. And I am so glad I went.
The evening service was worship and prayer. It was 45 minutes of singing, 20 minutes of a young lady teaching from Ephesians 3, and 20 minutes of prayer.
When this group sings, they take literally
these verses from 2 Samuel 6 to heart.
In verses 14 and 15 it says, “David was dancing before the Lord with all
his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the Ark of the Lord with
shouts and the sound of instruments.”
The younger members, and a few of the older ones, get into the worship
with shouting, dancing, jumping, always with smiles of joy on their faces. In one song, so many of the young men and
women were jumping so high and hard that you could feel the floor shaking (no
Mom, it wasn’t an earthquake). During
prayer time, two-thirds of the church was on their face before the altar. I haven’t been in a prayer service like that
in so many years. The ones who weren’t
on their faces, were old people like me, a few children, and some moms with
babies.
No comments:
Post a Comment