Este es el dia que hizo el Senor, me gozare, y le alabare.

That title means, "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." It is a very appropriate title considering I am blogging about one of the best Sabbaths I have ever had. It has some work included (which maybe is a bit blasphemous), but if you like what you do as much as I do, is it really work?

1.) Iglesia:

Most of the missionaries here go to "missionary church," i.e. gringo church. Now, I can imagine for those people who are here full time, it is probably much needed nourishment to worship and fellowship in your native language. For J and I though, one of favorite experiences of traveling is the experience of worshipping God with people of other cultures and in other languages. So anyways, Penny and John, 2 missionaries, do not go to gringo church but go to a Honduran church a little ways down the road from the hospital. We asked if we could go with them and planned on doing just that. Well, that morning there was a mini emergency that John and Penny had to attend to. They are the transportation for all of the kids at La Casa de Ninos so that responsibility then fell to us. Josh was scared to death driving a pick-up truck with at least 12 children in the back. They kept chanting for him to go fast, but he held fast. The service was a sweet time of worship. The children lead praise and worship, and there is something special about how children sing. It does not matter if they are out of tune or whether they have any rhtyhm at all. They are joyful worshippers singing at the top of their lungs and dancing with all of their energy. The message was on Romans 7---the passage where Paul says something along the lines of "I don't do what I want to do, and what I want to do, I do not do." Anyways, I have been also working through Romans in my quiet times, and it was good to meditate on these passages during church. Now that saying sounds a bit confusing, but I think we can all relate a bit to the battle between flesh and spirit. I know what it is that I want to do but I just don't do it. The only good news comes a little later in Romans 8 where it says, "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." Praise the Lord!

Dolly one of the women at the church. She is a beautiful, strong woman of God who reminds me of another strong, beautiful women of God in another country all of the way across the world. I am remembering my friend Rose, and her family while I'm writing this blog. She is the wife of a pastor in South Sudan.
Some of the kiddos. The young lady in the forefront of this picture came to la Casa as one of the worst cases of malnutrition they have ever seen. I have seen the pictures. It is not pretty. As you can see now, she is well-nourished, beautiful, and happy.

There is a joke here in Honduras that goes something like this. "How many Hondurans can you fit in one truck?" The answer is, "always one more." They truly live by this. One of the missionaries said he one time fit 38 people in his pick-up truck. By the way, the gringo is one of the missionary's grandson who has been living here for the past 10 months. He was the person who was baptized at the waterfall a while back.

2.) Deliveries:

Here is the second part of my awesome day. Now this is maybe when you would say that perhaps I was not taking a true Sabbath. But what better worship is there than to help bring new life into the world? There is nothing more awe-inspiring than a newborn baby with her fingers and toes so perfectly designed.

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalms 139: 13-14

3.) Lastly.... food and fellowship:

The OB doc here invited J and I to his house for dinner. Oh, man! He was grilling as we walk up chicken from the farm on site here. We walk in, and his wife is making all sorts of treats: beans, corn casserolle, fresh vegetables, roles, and ICE CREAM! We eat our full and enjoy the fellowship. The doc and his wife actually worked in Zimbabwe at a hospital I spent a month at when I was younger so we swapped stories.

Well, J is looking over my shoulder telling me that this is too long so I will wrap it up. Thank you all for reading our blog and keeping up with our stories.

NH