Awkward and Desperate

On Saturday night, in the jungle, it rained - actually it poured!  The lightning lit up the sky, the thunder made me jump off the wooden board I was sleeping on - the river rose beyond its banks.  During all that, the canoe with the motor attached filled with water and began sinking.  Eventually the motor was completely submerged.  Sunday morning at 6:00 A.M. when Tito and his mother discovered the submerged motor, they quickly took it out and carried it to Tito's house.  There Inocencio and Tito began taking it apart, piece by piece, drying it and oiling it.

Around 10:00 Inocencio came to me and said, "Sister, since we are working on the motor we can't have a church service.  But, there are some sisters here that have come to study. Can you do a study with them?"

Part of the congregation - in the 10 minute stare down, I took their picture.

I started scrambling!  Usually, if there is a man around, he does the Bible study, so I had not really prepared anything for the day's worship service.  I decided to share what I had read that morning in my morning devotional.  The women came with their children and sat down in silence.

I began teaching and more people came.  I finished teaching and more people came.  I explained that I was not going to sing  because no one would like that - they thought that was funny.  I prayed to dismiss us.   I then just sat there.  They just sat there.  We just sat and stared at each other.  I was thinking, "what do I do?  I don't think I should reteach the same thing.  I covered the plan of salvation and the Bible lesson. . . what are they waiting for?"

We just sat and stared at each other for 10 minutes!  So awkward!  Finally, one by one, they got up and left.  I asked Dad if his congregation has ever just sat in silence after a worship service ended - he said no.

After they had all left I got up and did an outline for two more Bible studies, just in case they came back later!

View from the church door

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House Calls

On Sunday, Dilma brought a neighbor to see me.  She said that her grandbaby was sick and would I come.  I went wading through the mud and arrived at her house.  Sure enough, the 10 month old needed antibiotic.  I waded back through the mud and water, mixed the antibiotic and returned.  I explained how to take the medicine, etc. and turned to go.  The grandmother was so grateful, she gave me 3 chirimoyas as a thank you/ payment for help.  SO GOOD!

Chirimoya - they have the texture of snot and taste like tapioca pudding . . . sound gross but they are great!

Tony said it best when they were asking him for notebooks and pencils in one village.  They are desperate.  They really have no options.  So when we come around they have to ask out of desperation.

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Tito and Ino went out Sunday night to go fishing.  Monday morning Tito came to see how I like my fish cooked.  A la brasa!  We had breakfast Monday before the team arrived.  So good!

Grilled Dorado and boiled plantains!  I love it.  We eat "buffet" style.  Everyone picks from the same piece.