Today we got up and had breakfast, which included the most amazing coffee I think I have ever tasted. We had some good stuff in Jamaica, but this takes the cake. After a quick breakfast we headed over to the church. The original plan for Sunday School was that all of the kids would be together in a small room and we would have an hour or so to do the program we had put together. Instead, we pulled up and they had 3 groups of kids and we had 20 minutes. Oh-and only one of those groups had a translator. We split ourselves up and rotated through the three groups teaching them songs and letting them teach us a song or two.
After Sunday school we went into the church service where they sang several songs and we got up and danced with them and tried to sing the song. The singing portion of the service took up a major portion of the time. One interesting aspect of the service was the baby dedication that they had. There were 3 babies that were dedicated. This was a very big deal because infant and maternal mortality rates are so high. They were not only dedicating the babies to God, but also celebrating the fact that each child was healthy and had both parents. In the church, when they receive blessings from God, they give an offering to the church. 8 mothers who had babies recently gave money and bought a new coffee pot for the church and something made of fabric that I could not get a good look at. The one woman who was and elder of some kind in the church actually danced around with the coffee pot on her head.
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| My new friend after Sunday School |
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| Baby dedication |
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| The new coffee pot on her head |
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| In teacher mode handing out ONE piece of candy |
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| Another new friend |
We went and ate lunch at a nice restaurant. Unfortunately, they were not accustomed to groups of 20, so it took us over 1.5 hours to get our food. On the bright side, though, they had amazing coffee!
After lunch we went over to the Widow's Village where we spent time hearing about the well that was recently installed with funds from a church in Georgia. When we got inside the village I waved at a little boy who was probably around 2 years old. He cam running over to me and wanted to stick with me the entire time. We colored together, took photos, and just sat together for a good portion of the time. He was so precious. At the end of our time at the village some of us met some of the widows and went to their homes to pray for them. The one woman grabbed my hand and took me to her home where she and her elderly father both live. When we asked how we could pray for her she said to first thank God for her home and then to pray that she can find a way to feed her father...Talk about humbling.
At the end of the night we went back, ate dinner, and watched As We Forgive in preparation for going to the Village of Reconciliation the next day.
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