Old Harbor Baptist Church

Today I visited the Old Harbor Baptist church. They actually have an English speaking service (or part English) as well as a Spanish service. Although many parts of the service were different than what I am used to back home (for example, the service ran 2.5 hours with no break!), it was nice to worship the same God with some local people. In the congregation were 9 women and 5 men, plus a lot of kids from the Sunday School who joined us for a few songs (see video).

In the pews, the kids were noisy and undisciplined, so they had to be ushered out after the singing. Afterwards there was a time of “open mike” for anyone in the congregation to share praise reports or testimonies, and one woman stood up and sang a song which she had written to Jesus. It was very touching! Also an elderly woman who recently came out of the hospital praised God for taking care of her. Finally, the sermon was an important message from Mathew 8 and 9 about the different ways people saw Jesus, and how we should see Him. All in all, the morning was a good reminder for me that around the world, we followers of Christ are ONE in Christ.

I've been having a great time re-connecting with the friends I made among the youth in June and meeting new people in town. I've been asking everyone I meet if they know of a reasonable 1-bedroom apartment for rent. Word of mouth is the best way of finding that sort of thing here. Aside from having a healthy cockroach population, the hostel where I've been staying has been o.k., but it would be nice to have a private bathroom, shower, and kitchen. I wasn't able to cook last night or this morning because a big group was using the shared kitchen at the hostel. I know God will provide just the right place for me.

a reminder that some are living in hardship