Super Sunday

Yesterday was one of those great days where you are constantly reminded of the goodness of God and are content in the place He has you in life. Sundays always start early and they are full of activity. Scotty is the first one over to the school to get church set up- usually meeting another guy there to help. I went over with him this week (I'm usually a little behind) and we began setting up Sunday school rooms and organizing a bit. Scotty had lots of nervous energy because he was on for preaching this week. I was excited about teaching the 10-12 year olds in Sunday school, something I have no experience doing. We got everything put together in time for people to start showing up and I ran home to pick up a teenage neighbor boy who wanted to come this week. As time goes on, people are showing up later and later to church- a natural habit here is not to show up on time for events. But, I very much enjoyed worshipping at the beginning of the service, doing my best to not be distracted by those who filed in late. Then the kids were dismissed and I had a nice, small group of 4 to teach about Solomon's temple and talk about what it means to be the temple of the Lord ourselves. After church, we invited the whole congregation to drive a block down to the new land that we signed off on last week to build our own church building. This land buying project has been a source of joy, praise, and a little frustration too. But, the truth that we continually come back to is that God provided in less than 6 months over $180,000 for this property and it is a piece of land that is ideal for us. At one point, we thought it was impossible because the family did not want to sell, but all things are possible for our Lord and He chose to make it available for us again. And now, it is ours! Our church is 8 months old and we already own land!! We went out as a body to pray and thank the Lord for His goodness. It was a neat time to be united together, bringing in the congregation who hasn't been involved in the purchase and helping them to see this is God's good gift for all of us. The neatest moment was when a friend of all of ours who was once very hardened to the gospel but has recently been broken and changed, prayed aloud to God and cried out for the salvation of his son and others in Mallasilla through the ministry of our church. What a special event to be a part of!

Later in the afternoon, Scotty and I headed down to town to hit our favorite coffee shop so that we could work on a special newsletter, drink cofffee, and satisfy my great sweet tooth. We ordered 2 slices of chocolate cheesecake, each slice big enough for 3 people to share! We both ate almost our entire slice without a problem. It was nice to relax and work together on a project. Then we were off to the grocery store to buy several kilos of hotdogs. Today is San Juan day in Bolivia. Fires are burned all over the country today to ward off evil spirits on the coldest night of the year. The more recent tradition is to get together to roast hotdogs, drink and sing. We are getting our small group together to burn a fire in the fireplace of our friends, the Pastens, boil hotdogs and play games- wanting to put a wholesome, Christian spin on this holiday. We see it as a great way to interact with our smallgroup in a more informal, friendly way and get to know each other better. I crashed hard last night, thankful for our great God who truly is at work around us, and the amazing husband and baby in the womb He has blessed me with.