Wednesday
Worshiping together and sharing stories from each church is a fabulous way to begin each morning and it was our turn today to present worship to the team at the conference office. We led a couple of our favorite songs that we have learned this week. Actually, I shouldn´t say “favorite,” but “obsession,” as we can´t get them out of our heads. I am definitely taking them back to Spanish class. I told how we had gotten connected to Andrews, Mariela told of her surprise donor (stories told earlier in blog) and Josué read from his quiet time journal. Ryan is passionate about the importance of putting our faith to action and he gave an inspiring talk about that.
This afternoon we walked to “La Loma de la Cruz” viewpoint. You have to climb 475 steps to get to a cross at the top where the Pope kissed the ground and prayed for the city on his visit here. We didn’t kiss the ground, but we enjoyed the amazing view of Holguin, the valley and surrounding small mountains. A security guard pointed out buildings to us and told us that in colonial times the Spaniards kept watch from the little tower at the top of the hill and could quickly alert the fort below of any threat.
The baseball player we met in Miami had told us that if we mentioned his name once we got to Holguin, anyone would know who he was. When we mentioned meeting Yordan Manduley to the youth pastor of our church, he told us he had a friend who could give us his phone number. It took a couple days to reach him, but today we talked to him and he asked to meet us at the park next to the Amigos church tomorrow. Sweet!
Despite our prediction of having topped out in the 50´s for VBS, we were surprised tonight by the crowd of 85 kids. They love the “Navegando” song we taught them—it was our obsession song on a mission trip to Guatemala a few years ago and it looks like we have passed on the obsession.
Instead of a skit tonight, we had a volunteer from the audience help with an illustration--we gave him a gift and then made him step on it, crushing the ornament inside. Of course, I had another one to give him and I talked about how we may feel the Sabbath is of no value, but if we cherish it, we discover it is a beautiful reminder of our relationship with God and of the time we can spend with Him.
Worshiping together and sharing stories from each church is a fabulous way to begin each morning and it was our turn today to present worship to the team at the conference office. We led a couple of our favorite songs that we have learned this week. Actually, I shouldn´t say “favorite,” but “obsession,” as we can´t get them out of our heads. I am definitely taking them back to Spanish class. I told how we had gotten connected to Andrews, Mariela told of her surprise donor (stories told earlier in blog) and Josué read from his quiet time journal. Ryan is passionate about the importance of putting our faith to action and he gave an inspiring talk about that.
This afternoon we walked to “La Loma de la Cruz” viewpoint. You have to climb 475 steps to get to a cross at the top where the Pope kissed the ground and prayed for the city on his visit here. We didn’t kiss the ground, but we enjoyed the amazing view of Holguin, the valley and surrounding small mountains. A security guard pointed out buildings to us and told us that in colonial times the Spaniards kept watch from the little tower at the top of the hill and could quickly alert the fort below of any threat.
The baseball player we met in Miami had told us that if we mentioned his name once we got to Holguin, anyone would know who he was. When we mentioned meeting Yordan Manduley to the youth pastor of our church, he told us he had a friend who could give us his phone number. It took a couple days to reach him, but today we talked to him and he asked to meet us at the park next to the Amigos church tomorrow. Sweet!
Despite our prediction of having topped out in the 50´s for VBS, we were surprised tonight by the crowd of 85 kids. They love the “Navegando” song we taught them—it was our obsession song on a mission trip to Guatemala a few years ago and it looks like we have passed on the obsession.
Instead of a skit tonight, we had a volunteer from the audience help with an illustration--we gave him a gift and then made him step on it, crushing the ornament inside. Of course, I had another one to give him and I talked about how we may feel the Sabbath is of no value, but if we cherish it, we discover it is a beautiful reminder of our relationship with God and of the time we can spend with Him.