Sunday, October 26, 2014

Today,  (Sunday) we left Heldsbach at 5:30 am for a three hour drive west into the mountains.   The road was pretty rough, but there was about a 5 miles stretch that was REALLY bad.  The big old Toyota Land cruiser lumbered up and down muddy mountainsides while we hung on for dear life.  We finally arrived at an incredibly beautiful village named Yiunzine (sp?), home to the Agololo Parish.  They gave us an amazing welcome with traditional and blended music and dancing.   It was really a 30 minute entrance rite.   Dan stayed back in Heldsbach with diarrhea.   I preached on 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8.  It is always a bit frustrating to preach with the built in limitations of pidgin.   We blessed a bunch of 8th graders who would begin taking their exams on Monday.   It is hard to express how much they seemed to appreciate our coming out to be with them.  It was really humbling and overwhelming to have so many people put out so much effort to welcome us.  What incredible hospitality.   After worship,  they provided a nice lunch with some really good Taro.  There were a number of leaders speaking publicly on a variety of community concerns to a crowd gathered in front of the church.   Before we left,  I spoke about the reason for the current trip.  We made 3 stops on our way back to Heldsbach.   One of them was just to stretch.   The other two were to meet with groups of people at Sesibona and Sattleberg.   I spoke about our partnership with the Kote District,  and the reason for our current visit at both places.   We got back to Heldsbach about 5 pm, and were relieved to find Dan feeling better. We quickly got on the Internet and checked for emails containing news about the world series  from my wife.  We were disappointed to learn that the Royals lost.  It was an early morning and it is time for bed.  More later.  

1 comment:

  1. Must have been a really nice trip on Sunday if Sattleberg was only part way in. Makes me think, too, of the wonderful festival welcomes we received last year. A great place! Just mentioned our Sattleberg experience last year with our Bible class this morning related to the Sermon on the Mount. Sorry Dan and more, if not all, have had illness. All on the line tonight for the series. As someone asked the other day at convo, since you are many hours ahead of us in time, does that mean you know the results of the game before we do? Safe trip back. Keith Holste

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