04-24-08

The Church of God in the town of Tuqurique began meeting in a horse pasture. Each Sunday they would meet under a temporary roof set up in the pasture and learn about the love of God. People from the surrounding villages would walk to take part in the services; however, when the rainy season came, it was difficult for the people from the surrounding villages to attend. The rains usually came in the afternoon, so going to church in the morning meant that they would have to make the return trip home in the rain. For this reason and because of the distance, the people of Las Vueltas began meeting in homes. Eventually, the home meetings grew into a full-fledged congregation with their own church building. Now the church has reached the point where they have a vision for the new church at the new site. Pastor Noily Hernández wants to reach out to the community through this new facility. She even has a dream of having a football field (soccer to us gringos) next to the property so that the children from the community can play ball near the church.

Our goal today, Thursday, is to make as much progress on the wall as possible. Some of the group mixed concrete, poured concrete into the holes they helped finish digging yesterday for the wall footers, and positioned the forms for the first two columns on the wall. The work was hard and the heat intense, but the workers pushed forward, taking breaks as needed. The balance of the group painted the front of the church and assisted a local electrician who was installing new lights in the church.

In the morning, Susan went to the local school where she was invited into the first and second grade English classes. The children were very well mannered as the teacher began the time together by taking attendance and opening with a prayer in English. Well after the second grade class session had begun, a boy walked quietly into the class and took his seat. The teacher greeted him with a smile and then explained to us that it is quite common for some children to arrive late to class because they must walk as far as forty-five minutes just to get to school. The English lessons began as they reviewed the date, day, and weather. Before the teacher turned the class over to Susan they reviewed the names of body parts and then finished with a rousing rendition of “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” that got faster with each repetition.

Susan took over the class and began teaching the children simple words and phrases in Chinese. She began with father and mother, hello, and then moved on to phrases like I love you, I love mother, I love father, and I love Jesus. She then had the children say, “I love you mother,” or, “I love you father.” One little boy pointed to the girl behind him and said in Spanish, “She doesn’t have a father.” And then he quickly said, “But Jesus is her father.” How wonderful to see that in a public school prayer can take place freely, and children can tell about the love of God openly. It was a wonderful experience for Susan, who loved every single minute of her time with the children. She went on to teach the children to count to five and write the numbers to five in Chinese as well. As it turns out the classroom that Susan taught used to be one large room. A Tri-S group from Anderson University came and divided the classroom in 2005. It was great to see that their work has benefited the school in a great way.

Today was a great day…an exhausting great day for our group.

Check back for more updates.

Logan E. Ritchhart
CBH Media Specialist