24/03/2011 (posted 04/04/2011)
Nice early start again today. Breakfast was three finger bread rolls and one piece of cinnamon bread - nice as it was, I could have done with a lot more.
With this in mind, I supplemented it with one of the multitude of oranges we've been given for the week - this supply of lovely fresh fruit is both a blessing and a curse. They're obviously delicious and useful for snacks but I am getting heartburn several times a day due to the quantity I'm consuming.
We hiked for around an hour and a half to get to a small community. We sat around eating oranges while the Pastor got some people together and we then gave a short programme and prayed with the residents.
We seemed to connect a bit with them but these indigenous people are just so shy and not remotely forthcoming that it makes it very difficult to develop any sort of a rapport.
One of the dramas we do is called the Heart Drama and in one part, features a guy trying to win the affections of a girl. This usually involves him offering a flower and then buffing up in the gym but we adapted it for the local culture. This led to the preposterously funny sight of Jarett first taking Bonnie an orange and secondly, a live chicken. It was absolutely priceless and the photos are hilarious.
We stayed for a lunch of rice and beans and immensely sugary coffee. They make the coffee in a crazy way - they put powder and a small amount of water in a cooking pan over a fire and then add sugar. They keep heating it until it starts boiling and they then chuck in a load of water and serve it straight away.
The resulting drink is an immensely sugary lukewarm coffee but it's nice enough, and it's the best we have.
After we finished, I had another orange and then we left. The Pastor has a slingshot which we played with for a bit and Andrew managed to knock an orange off the tree.
A few of us headed down to the river to cool off when we got back. We went back to the area where we could jump in and I almost reached the bottom when I did a bomb.
I organised the evening service. This week we have been told to do two hours per night but have barely managed an hour and a half each time as we don't want to put in multiple dramas or testimonies because it doesn't allow any sort of a running concept throughout the service.
However, I cunningly included a time where any member of the congregation could come to the front and receive prayer and they really went for it.
Their dependance on prayer and faith in it is really inspiring for me, as it can occasionally be used as simply the the header and footer of a service back home. There was one blind man called Antonio Jimenez who wanted prayer for his brother and he was just such a great guy, welcoming and humble.
When it finished they offered us all coffee but I managed to sneak away and get to bed.
The last thing I want at 10pm is a sugary coffee.
JG
No comments:
Post a Comment