On Thursday Fernanda and I left to travel to a different state to a small town called
El Sombrero- The Hat. It took us 13 hours to finally arrive at our final destination, after having awakened at 5am that day. Being very exhausted and sweaty after taking 3 different buses to get there, Fernanda was asked to preach that night. In spite of how tired we were we could not refuse, so we hurried and got to our host home to shower and prepare for the service that evening. Showering in the bathroom was an experience I have felt and done before, but obviously not prefer. However, that’s the life of a missionary…never knowing what to expect and always be grateful no matter what! The house where we were at did not receive their water during the day, only at night. So at night they fill up a big plastic trash bucket of water, and then that’s all you have to use for the daytime.
So to take your shower you fill up small buckets of water, pour it all over yourself, and whatnot…sure you have gotten the point by now. The problem is that I have very long and thick hair. It would take the whole trash bucket just wet it!! So giving up on trying to wet it thoroughly I said eh, whatever- I just shampooed semi-dri/wet and rinsed as best as possible. Then to brush your teeth you use the same water from the trash bucket. I was kinda grossed out because when it got emptier you could see all kinds of dirt in the water when I would scoop it for my teeth. So what did I do?? Chewed a lot of gum that I bought before I left to come to VZ. Haha… Along with trying to use some of my mineral drinking water they bought me to do the job with my mouth.
Okay, so Fernanda preached that night at the church and the Pastor talked a little about me. Then the next night Fernanda gave her teachings on Missions to a packed church. Before starting with what she has planned she introduced me to everyone, and had me come up and say a short word of encouragement to the people using scripture. I also sang them a song on the guitar. This was interesting because all they had was an old out of tune classical guitar. The church was too big to play acoustically, so they could not hear me too well. Along with the fact I had to sit in a chair because I had no guitar strap to use. Then I had nowhere to place my music. So the setup was me sitting in a chair, with Fernanda holding my music in front of me, and the Pastor holding the mic in place. Heh..it was pretty awkward, but the people loved it anyways! The reason being-well a lot of things possibly, but for sure I know one reason is because I sang the song in Spanish. :)
So once the service was coming to a close Fernanda had me come up again to sing another Spanish song, that is very Missions oriented. This time however, the piano player came up and I have to say- he was incredible! He could play any song by memory and ear. So I said forget the guitar! I’m going with the flow of him. So I told him what song and key and he played so well along with me as if we had practiced or something. It was great! So I took the mic and led without the guitar, which I don’t do too often. My guitar oftentimes is sort of my safe guard. I enjoyed it so much. The Pastor liked it so much he asked me to continue into another song! So I led the congregation some more. I know God helped it come so naturally and thanks to Him He helped me learn those Spanish songs I have been rehearsing and studying over. If I hadn’t prepared myself earlier while I was in the States that night would not have gone so successfully the way it did.
Besides that being a major highlight to my day, the other one would definitely have to be the fact that all the pastors we were connected with had motorcycles and when we went to the church and back we got rides on them. And that was awesome! I love excursions like that! Totally my style… :) We left the town of El Sombrero on another early morning of Saturday and got to another state and town called
La Victoria- The Victory. The same happened as last time. We showered got ready and Fernanda gave her lesson. This time I did not participate in the service really. I gave a short word saying hi to everyone, but I was fairly exhausted. :( After that we went to the host home, stayed the night and left again in the morning to head back home to Barquisimeto. It’s funny I haven’t even been here too long yet, and already while we were out of town I was missing “home,” and the people in the office we work in everyday.
