Yet another moving Sunday Service

Today was the long-awaited meeting of more internet friends - Tracy & Rafael Rodrigez. This couple runs a local church, which they started a little over 2 years ago, and a feeding program for children from resource poor homes. Pastor Rodrigez picked us up from our hostel in David this morning and drove us to the church. It was such a warm and welcoming place, again, many were very intersted in us, considering we nearly glow in the dark in comparison...

Tracy asked me to attend the teenage-girl Sunday school class, and offered me an opportunity to share my faith and offer encouraging words to the young ladies. I made a few girlfriends, who tended to accidently, continuously forget that I am not that familiar with their language. It was pretty funny, they would get all excited to tell me something, or ask me something, and then remember the language barrier when they saw my blank face staring back...We´d then laugh and begin our game of charades...

Tom attended the adults Sunday school, and when we were introduced in front of the congregation during the service, the pastor invited him to the front of the church to share his faith and our jounrey. Isn´t it amazing that when you go searching for opportunities to share, they can be given to you in a more nerve racking situation then you ever intended??? I don´t think I need to mention that he did a fantastic job, and spoke through the interpreter with ease.

After the service we all jumped in the church bus and headed down to the creek for baptisms. It was beautiful. After, the church bus drove all around and dropped off anyone who needed a ride home, many of them where people who would otherwise not have been able to afford the transportation to and from church this morning. It was such a strong community.

We had dinner at the Rodrigez home, and were joined by a guest pastor and his wife. Out of the 6 adults at the table; 2 spoke English, 2 spoke Spanish, 2 spoke both. I´ll let you guess who was who. I don´t know if I talk about the language issue too much, but it affects EVERY SENTENCE!

Tomorrow we are heading back to the Rodrigez home and visiting the feeding centre for their lunch session. Tom and I are both very excited to be a part of that. Tracy and I have had some discussion about nutritional concerns and considerations, and I am eager to learn more the children. When I return to San Felix later this week I have the opportunity to spend some evenings with some Panamanian nutritionists, I´m sure they will have a few pointers I can pass along as well. (I´m just picturing how I am going to act this one out --nutritionally deficient children, cooking practices, calcium content, budget planning!?!!)

Tom has been able to help Rafael with a few computer glitches they are having, and he and Rafael were getting all excited over "pixels and lumens". We have so much more to talk with them about! So, after the visit to the centre tomorrow, we are heading up to Boquete with them. Boquete is a tourist town about a hour from David, they are going their for a conference. This trip will help us squeeze in a little more time with each other...Not to mention be a lot closer to an opportunity to do something a little crazy for Tom´s b-day...Oh, there will be pictures...