Sunday

hi from costa rica!

i spoke with ari briefly today and she said church was great today. we were thinking of you all.

we worshipped at a small open air church, it was mostly a basketball court. they had a praise band and about 75 people in attendance. there were so many small children...and they smiled so much. we met hilary and katerina and carolina. they sat in the row of foldout chairs in front of us. they were beautiful. katerina spoke english and helped us understand the welcome that we received from various people. the minister, an exceptionally articulate woman, preached from Genesis 22...the Abraham and isaac story. She invited everyone to have faith....that God is with us when things seem most out of hand.

A couple of things about the service...

the children smiled so much. sometimes i think our culture does its very best to tame children. we structure so much of their activity. we structure their time at church at well. these children seemed free...

there seemed to be no concern for time. church is what they had to do today. i never got the sense that they were going to hurry off to do something else. this was a sabbath day. i loved that.

anyway, more later....