Easter Sunday/Domingo de Pascoa

Sunday morning began very wet. It has been raining all morning. Again, people travel on foot here so I was very worried about if people were going to come to service or not. When we arrived, there were a few people there already. As we were setting up for service the people started coming in even with the rain. I’m starting to sympathize with Pastor Timmy Straight having to set up and break down for service every Sunday. But the rain also made the hot coffee and cookies very enjoyable to that arrived on time. Carol and I have been teaching songs in Portuguese to them but we have also been learning some of their songs in Shangan. It’s awesome to see them smile in appreciation of us trying to sing their songs. Or they may be laughing at the way we are saying things. I’m glad God says, “Make a joyful noise…” In the end we had about 100 people at service. And we celebrated easter with some juice and sandwiches. The kids sure loved that. We usually have the kids go outside with Carol so they can have their own service but with the rain, we were one big happy family. We don’t have a sound system yet so I spoke very loudly to beat the sound of the rain on the aluminum roof. Lord willing next weekend we will have a sound system.

Comecamos Domingo de manha com muita chuva. E como aqui o unico meio de transporte na comunidade e a pe, fiquei preocupado caso as pessoas viriam ao culto ou nao. Quando chegamos na igreja, ja havaim algumas pessoas la esperando por nos. A medida que comecamos a organizar tudo para o culto as pessoas comecaram a chegar, mesmo com toda aquela chuva. Estou me sentindo como o Pr Timmy Straight, tendo que montar e desmontar tudo para a igreja cada domingo. Aqueles que chegaram na hora, puderam aproveitar um cafezinho quente com biscoitos. Carol e eu temos ensinado algumas musicas em Portugues, mas tambem temos aprendido outras em Shangan. E incrivel ver o sorriso deles quando tentamos cantar as musicas no seu dialeto. Talvez estejam rindo da gente tentando falar seu idioma. Estou feliz Deus disse," Facam barulho de alegria..." No final do culto haviam umas 100 pessoas. Celebramos a Pascoa com suco e sanduiches. Claro que as criancas amaram. Geralmente as criancas tem classe fora da igreja com a Carol. Mas por causa da chuva, ficamos todos dentro como uma grande familia feliz. Ainda nao temos sistema de som, entao tive que falar muito alto pra tentar ganhar do barulho da chuva batento no telhado de aluminio. Se Deus quiser, semana que vem teremos sistema de som.