Pentecost Sunday

It has been neat each of the last two years to worship in a Spanish speaking congregation on Pentecost Sunday. Our group has better Spanish language skills than Beavis who "the only Spanish you know is what you learned at Taco Bell, and half the time [you] don't get that right," but sometimes it is just barely better. For us to get anything from worship thus requires the movement of the spirit opening our ears to hear. Today that came through the music. Most of the hymns that we sang were familiar and so as the congregation sang in Spanish we each heard them singing as if in our own tongue. I did not see any tongues of flame, but I did hear a sound like a rushing wind as the congregation each prayed their personal prayers aloud around us during the pastoral prayer.

Supplies were purchased today and our work will begin in earnest tomorrow. Casa Bugambilia has been transformed since our last visit. It is much larger than before. We will work to build rooms for the hospice care that happens there. On the Texas side of the border we will be making repairs and improvements to the dorms where groups like ours stay when they come to work.

I'll let Bill tell the story of his remarkable day in our first video.

Arrived Safely

On our way out to the Bayview site where we are staying this year we drove through acres of citrus groves. Only one of the trees had any fruit and we went by too fast to see what it was in the early twilight.
The work we do here, like the trees, was here before we arrived. The work we do will largely not bear fruit until after we leave. But, someday far away from here we may taste the sweetness.
Tomorrow we will obey the commandment to enjoy the Sabbath. We will worship and relax. I hope you will do the same.

Getting ready to go

Extra loads of laundry have been done, trips have been taken to Wal-Mart for sunscreen, bags have been hauled out of the attic for packing.
It doesn't seem like it has been a whole year since we last took this trip. Everything seems familiar and at the same time different. This year there is new concern about epidemic influenza and violence in border cities in western Mexico. Some of us have had family members call us worried, and some may have decided to stay home because of those concerns. We'll be staying at a different location than we have the past few years so that work can be done on the dorm at the church where we had been staying.
The weather report calls for rain. We ask for you to rain prayers down on us and those we go to serve.