Sunday April 26

On yesterday's tour, Brad showed me the high school, which is where the International Bible Church is currently meeting. I found the place Sunday morning in time for church at 9am. Everything is open-air here on the island -- restaurants are usually out in a covered patio, and the high school classrooms and auditorium are completely open. Pigeons joined us overhead for church. Brad ran the small sound board, and the praise team consists of a rotating schedule of many people in the church, different people each week. We sang out a hymnal that had some of the old standard praise songs as well. This is the only English-speaking church on the island. Most of the people in the church, however, are not caucasian. Most people here are African- or Latino-descended. The pastor is local guy who was a pastor in the U.S. for many years, then returned here in his retirement. The sermon was on Genesis 2: "Marriage made in paradise." Seemed fitting for this location. After the service there was a small Sunday School class. Brad brought out a TV and VCR and we watched an old tape from the '70's or '80's. Everyone in the audience looked like they were dressed for a Lawrence Welk show. It was a set of tapes that were made to be sort of a seminary training for those who couldn't attend a seminary. This week's topic was a continuation of a study in the Psalms.

After church I drove down to the airport to pick up my mis-routed luggage. The same girl was working there who I'd spoken to the day before. When we went to get it, she told me that I was the only one who had lost luggage that wasn't mad at her. Josh had emailed me, "And may you be the serving Presence of the Savior to people who need to see Him." I guess in this one small way I was.

I went to a grocery store and found it to be an interesting place. Lots of strange foods with Dutch labels, things stacked all over on the floor. I thought I'd start with some basics. I found peanut butter, but no bread. I found a few boxes of cereal, but no milk. I later was to find out that their milk is in cartons like we get soy milk in the U.S., and it's unrefrigerated. So I ended up getting peanut butter, chips and salsa, coke, tropical fruit juices, etc. -- a few things to much on as I figured out what I was going to cook. There were no 'TV dinners' here in their freezer sections.