1st Sunday Service, Jesús María

Our team of 19* arrived early for our first service in a new neighborhood, to put up some posters, clean up a bit and pray. We prayed that God would bring the people he wanted to reach, that our very young little church would be a lighthouse in the community, that we would be clean vessels.

At 11 o'clock, our stated starting time, there were still just 19 of us. Suddenly I started to wonder...is anyone else going to come? Samuel and I went to get some tables at our little community center, then stopped by at Andrea's house. Andrea and her two daughters, Claudia and Ari. We returned back to our "church" building, a small two-bedroom, and were pleased and maybe a bit surprised to see the main meeting room packed with people.

I was nervous. I think David Gomez and pretty much everyone else was a bit too. Here we were with 6 families. In most cases, the women had made professions of faith, but no one else had. Four of the husbands came, a huge answer to prayer. In all, 44 people attended. I'm guessing that for better than half, it was their first time ever in an evangelical church.

After the service, we ate pozole together as a group. Pozole is a soup sort of stew sort of whole meal, with hominy (puffed corn), pork or chicken (pork is better), in a tasty broth. You then put onion, oregano, radish and lettuce in it, with some hot sauce maybe. Quite tasty. The ladies made a LOT of it. We wrapped up eating with a long conversation, and left the church around 4:40. Or did we? About 12 kids/youth(including Daniel and Cathy) went up to Samuel and Aurora's house, and later on that evening, we had a campfire, made marshmallows, and ate more pozole. Most of the young people stayed overnight. I picked up Daniel and Cathy at around 2 p.m. today. The party was still going strong!

*(actually 20, but Jim Cottrill wasn't able to come due to a screaming migraine)

Here's some pictures!