Sunday, January 30, 2011 – Worship that Makes Your Spirit Move

Our team woke up groggy and emotionally drained from yesterday’s powerful God moments. I did not sleep much as I was asked to preach for Rev. Stanley at his Spring Valley slum church this morning and was a bit nervous about how any message I could preach would connect with those in such a different community and world in which most of my life takes place. I forgot that God can work no matter who we think we are or are not.

We had a great morning of Sunday School with adults, teens and youth and then some great praise and worship music that included a youth choir and dance group. The place was alive with the Holy Spirit and when it came time to preach I was blessed with a great translator and we had a great time reflecting on God’s word from the Gospel of Luke about the enemies of Jesus. We talked about how we all are recovering Pharisees and the message seemed to resonate in both the cultures of Durango and Nairobi. Our team was so welcomed and we were encouraged as we worshipped to experience the power of God in this wonderful new place.

After worship we headed back to HOREC where we had some lunch and then got some more great time with the children. We sang some songs together and then spent time with the kids we had been praying for the past few months, getting to know them better and hearing about their favorite things in life. Thomas and I interviewed a few of the older kids to take those back to his school and then we all gathered in the dining hall for a brief worship time together. Several of the kids read some bible stories about the Pharisees that we had read in the morning, then I taught them a few fun songs that we sang with gusto.

WE ended our time at HOREC by handing out letters from some of the students in Thomas’ class at Miller Middle school. They especially like the gum in the letters, then they went off to read every word in every letter…some read their letters twice over. We headed back to our hotels to rest up for the next day in which we would begin our projects. It was a great and exhausting day.