7.12.09

What a day. This morning we went to Gospel Mission Church, the first church we visited when we arrived in Reheboth. We each were paired with a translator, which was such a blessing. They take such good care of their “American friends” in that church. (Yes, you should read that with some satire.)

The message was taken from Daniel, where the writer said Daniel was a good pray-er and had an excellent life. The main point of the sermon was that an excellent prayer life will produce an excellent life. True? Maybe, yeah, in some ways. The pastor’s three examples were, if you have an excellent prayer life, you will 1) be on time (you are allowed to be 10 minutes late ever 6 months he said), 2) you will dress nicely and keep your appearance well (if you don’t get your hair done often enough, he said, someone might question whether or not the God you claim to follow exists) and 3) will keep your home nice for guests.

Well, Jesus, I guess you’re out. Me too. I haven’t showered in five days.

The pastor invited us to his home for lunch. It was beautiful (evidently he has a fantastic prayer life). He joked about America and told stories about conferences he has been to, about his dream of one, giant, unified church in Reheboth. The team laughed at his jokes and complimented his home and encouraged his vision. I had to keep quiet. I wanted to ask about the sermon and Alex, knowing ahead of time, told me I couldn’t.

At 3:00 pm, there was an all church prayer meeting. The goal of this was to unify churches in the town. They are so separate and pitted against each other. Out of the 75 churches, six pastors came. Our pastor friend was not among them. we prayed in big circles. All at once. It was great. One time, I was prayer and suddenly heard my voice really really loudly. I was really startled and opened my eyes to see a man with a microphone pressed to my face. I later learned that the service was live on the radio. I’m a local praying legend, I bet.

No Chandre again today…I’m getting quite worried about her. I know she’s in His hands. Pray He’ll send her back to us.