Sunday, January 17, 2010

Today’s breakfast was egg lasagna, cereal, fresh fruit, and orange juice. Yummy!

After that, we got ready and Michael took us to Hopewell for church. Pastor Desmond taught Sunday School. His lesson was about caring for our spiritual bodies as much as we do our physical bodies: being careful about what we put in our minds through what we watch and listen to, and so on.

We mostly led the worship service. Pastor Desmond introduced us, then Steve led a couple of songs. Tony gave his testimony, and the men’s quintet sang “Heaven’s Joy Awaits.” Pastor Ken preached from 2 Corinthians 5:9,10. He reminded us that our deeds will be judged by God to see if they are eternally valuable.

We were told we had to be sure to be done by noon because there is a Pentecostal church right next door (less than 10 feet separate the two buildings), and their service starts at noon. Pastor Ken was done before noon, but then Pastor Desmond proceeded to lead about 30 minutes of singing. And this is not sedate American singing; this is energetic Jamaican singing! But the other church was singing at about the same time, so we weren’t disturbing them. I guess it was almost a competition!

After church, most of the team met people from the Robin’s Nest orphanage at a swimming beach called Doctor’s Cave, which is right near where we’re staying. They had fun helping the kids play.

Scott, Ed, George, and I stayed at the church to work more on the bathroom. Again, it was sort of quieter work because of the church having their service right next door. But we heard their whole service very clearly! Their preacher was definitely loud. He must have a really sore throat every Sunday night. We were able to get the sub-floor completely down and the tiles under where the first toilet will go. The sink is all ready too.

Then the four of us went back to Fair Haven, met up with the rest of the team, got cleaned up for the evening service, and had supper. We had beef with gravy on beans and rice, green salad, potato salad, and cake for dessert.

In the evening service, I led singing, Ed gave his testimony, our men’s quartet sang “Peace Like a River,” and Pastor Ken preached. His message was from 1 Peter 4:10, and he challenged us to use the gifts and abilities God has given us for His service. Again, Pastor Desmond led about 30 minutes of praise and worship after PK was done.

For our devotions tonight, George and Scott gave their testimonies, and Steve taught us about the importance of faithful fellowship, and the example the early church was of that. I prayed with Scott afterwards.

Before bed, we practiced the skits we will be doing tomorrow in the schools. I’m in a “Burdens” skit that talks about the sin burdens we bear, and how Jesus can take them away. I’m supposed to be a really macho dude that struggles with pride, bullying, and acting on anger. It’s fun to act that way, because that’s really not me. I’m more the skinny old man type. We’re also doing a skit called “Sin Chair.” I’m not in that one, but it is a wordless skit that parallels getting stuck on wet paint with getting stuck in sin, and how Jesus is the only way to be free.