Trip Journal: June 24th

SUNDAY

Because the church had sustained so much damage, services were being held at the pastor's house.  A curtain was put up to cover the small kitchen and preparations were made to have children's classes outside. 

I was teaching the creation story.  They were very surprised to hear that where I come from there are no coconut, papaya, mango, lemon or banana trees.  Some of them looked as if they did not believe me.  Also, I stopped after the 7th day, when God rested, but one of the students filled us in about the first sin...too funny.  They were such a good class.

We told them we had brought chicken, vegetables and rice to prepare a meal for the church.  The chicken had stretched our budget a little and there was the logistics of trying to keep it all frozen, but I think it was the biggest blessings to everyone, so I'm so glad we were able to do it.  The pastor's wife was so excited, she asked if we could do mole and rice instead of chicken soup.  I, of course, was more than willing, but have no idea how to make mole.  She was happy to make it and it was really delish.  If anyone comes and visits we will be make sure you get to try some.  It has nothing to do with grasshoppers, I promise. 

What a wonderful fellowship we had after church and then we all worked on dividing up the large bags of beans and rice.  This was used to encourage the church folks and was brought to some of the more needy in the area.  It's alway great to have someone local with you who nows the needs of the community.  Although it wasn't much, the gesture that others were thinking of them and praying for them seemed to be a blessing to all.  Sam and I had the added blessing of being able to teach and preach.  I taught and Sam preached of course.  We barely had time to clean up before it was time to head about an hour out to the village of Coyula for the evening.   Where even more blessings awaited.

Despite being close enough to the ocean to see it from some of the higher points in town, this village had not been greatly affected by the hurricane.  We had some time before church to spend with one of the church families.  We chatted on the front porch and drank the Coke they offered, (some of you who know me well will chuckle) while the children played in the hammock and explored the yard.  

Of special interest to all was the coconut trees.  The coconuts looked so yummy and ripe and how hard could it be to climb a coconut tree.  Son number two, of course, had to try and came to report he had gotten at least 10 feet into the air and felt sure without his shoes on it would be easy.  We all came to watch AND LAUGH (A LOT), because it’s actually quite hard to climb a coconut tree.  My husband, Mr. Missionary, thought he would try with a strap from the van and got a whopping 2 feet off the ground!  

Second attempt without the strap was a little better. 

Thought this might be of some interest to both home schoolers and grandparents.  The grandparents can note the cute kid, the home schoolers the coconut beginning to spout.

They may have thought we were crazy Americans, but we were fun crazy Americans and very entertaining.  One of the men went down the road a bit and bought some coconuts as a rewards for our efforts.  He also brought along the town professional tree climber to show us all how it is done.  We all had another good laugh over how easy he made it look.  They were even so generous as to give us the coconuts he cut down.

It was such an encouragement to my children to be so warmly received.  Sam was given the privilege of preaching the evening service and of course, there was excitement in the air about the trip up to Pluma in the morning.

Don't you love my kids brand of ministering!  It's called playing and it's good for all the little hearts involved!

I'll leave you with one last picture.  See if you can find the iguanas.  They actually make tacos out of them, although we didn't get to try any iguana.....maybe next time.

UPDATE:


This Sunday the church in Pochutla was able to meet in their church building due to some "lonas" or canvas tarps we were able to provide.  Praise the Lord!