Sunday began like it does for most of us back in the States: Heading to a 9am service. The church we are partnering with for this trip held a special service in our honor on Sunday morning (their main service is usually on Saturday evening, with Sunday mornings reserved for children’s-focused Sunday school).

It was incredible to see how “at home” both our team and the local church felt during the service. Humorously, Bob W., one of the lead ushers at RezDT’s 9am service, found himself ushering in people at the El Obraje church.

The United Methodist Church of El Obraje Pastor Alejandro’s message for the service was on the top of running a race. As Christians (and as Paul said in 1 Corinthians), we also run a race. Unlike races where there is only one “First Place”, our prize is incorruptible…eternal. This message set the stage for one of this mission trip’s goals: to assist the church in hosting a soccer tournament. Pastor Alejandro detailed “Cupa del Rey” (King’s Cup) as the neighborhood soccer tournament being held this week.

img_0319After church, the team dug into setting up the computer lab. A few team members have a technical background and, within about an hour, we were able to get ten computers booted up and running. What was neat to see was the coordination between people–everyone using their talents for the good of the project. For example Chris, who is always all smiles, helped hook up the air compressor so we could blow out the dust from the computers.

We made it back to Danli, our staging area and the location for our hotel, around 2:3img_39730p. One of the neat places of interest in Danli is a cross located on a hillside. There is a hiking trail up to this cross (passing by the stations of the cross). Unified, the team made the decision to trek up this hill. The view was amazing, and the trek was definitely worth it (see photo of Danli from the cross).

 

During Sunday evening’s devotional, we all shared what we had seen, did, heard, and felt during the day’s activities. Each team member seemed to have made a connection with something on Sunday. For Maddy, the youngest team member, it was with a little boy named Mario. Mario was fearless and was unashamed to be himself. For a teenager, this was a remarkable quality — the ability to just be yourself without having to put on a mask. For RezDT’s Pastor Patrick was a hit with the children, who instantly were polarized to him and his bushy beard. Anne and Colby personally invited a local woman to attend the service (which she did).img_0316