A Day of Ministry

Sunday, August 8

We started the morning off with a visit to Pastor Wilson's church, a local Dominican pastor. It was our first time doing the dramas for Dominicans. We only practiced a little bit the night before, so when they all went so well, we know that it was God who did it. The dramas are The Chair, Broken Heart, Strings, and Everything. The people understood even though we didn't use any words. God was present and worked through us. We will put up videos of the dramas soon. The pastor said that there was no need for a sermon since the dramas had spoken as the sermon. The church was in a lower income area, but the room was packed with people, mostly children. The worship was enthusiastic, joyful, and sincere. The music was loud music sung to with a CD. Tammy our group leader said, "It was like Hillsong United in Spanish on steroids." She was sitting 5 feet from the speakers and couldn't hear questions from the rest of the group for the next few hours. We sang one song for them, which has now become our Christian greeting song, called Dame la Mano, or Give me your hand. During the chorus we go around and shake everyone's hand. It was such a blessing to be able to worship with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

The afternoon was filled with orientation about the guest house and what was to come in El Cercado, lunch at 2, packing for El Cercado, rest time, and a light dinner at 4. We left San Juan by 5 and headed up into the hills for El Cercado,which is about an hour west of San Juan and is located in the mountains.

That night we went to another church service at Pastor Morales' church, where we did all four dramas. Everything in the dramas went really well and everyone seemed to be more comfortable in the different parts. Once again, God really used the efforts on the group to spread His message. After the dramas, Pastor Morales gave an alter call, and a young girl in the church, Marcia, came up and committed her life to Jesus. Though we couldn't speak the language, it was encouraging to the group to be a part of the fellowship and joy of a new believer within the body of Christ. (Sidebar: Mary did her best to use her Spanish with some of the young boys in the church. They'll never forget it -- neither will she!)

Following the church service, we all loaded into the church van and the pick up truck, and were dropped off at our home stays. The home stays were host families from Morales' church who opened up their homes and had us live with them for the time we were in El Cercado. It was exciting and terrifying as we dropped off team members two by two at their houses, wondering which house would be the house in which we were to stay. It was quite the experience meeting the families that night and trying to speak in Spanish enough to communicate with them and carry on a conversation. Keep in mind, the families we stayed with didn't speak any English. Everyone's experiences were very different, and it was funny and exciting listening to everyone's stories the next day at breakfast.

Hallie and Peter (for the team)