March 27

This was a super full Sabbath. I was able to go to every one’s church once and Jonathan and Becky were the last ones. The pastor, his wife and two daughters picket us up at nine and we packed into his minivan. Then began the long journey. Their church is by far the longest away. It is the only church that is not up in the mountains. Most of it is flat with just a few short hills. After 50 minutes of bumping along on a dirt road we parked. We got out and instantly started to sweat. We had a cross a swinging bridge that was almost as bad as Sharon’s and David’s, just not as long. Thankfully the church had air conditioning and they kept the door closed. But after awhile it was really hot inside too.
Becky has been doing most of the preaching but Jonathan wanted to do a couple so he did the church service. He wasn’t feeling so well and had a sun burn but he pressed on anyways and did a great job. The little kids did a special music. They were really cute.
Lunch was really good, as always. We had real tapioca root. It is really starchy. I am really, really going to miss the food here. We ate out under a rubber tree.
After lunch we changed and went to a neighbor’s house that had a monkey! We fed him a banana but he wasn’t so impressed with that. Then we gave him fish food. Wow, did he ever love that!!!! He would hold your hand so that it didn’t move away and then eat with his other hand. After a while his owner let him out and instead of hanging around he quickly ran up a tree. He hung out there for a while. The owner didn’t seem to mind. I guess he came down later.
Then we went to his house and he had some turtles in a cage. They just got them from the river. And I didn’t realize but they were snapping turtles! Their shells are soft. I picket one up from behind and he was kicking around and then reached his head around and almost bit me! His neck was more than three inches long!!! I quickly put him back in his cage.
For the afternoon meeting instead of doing the prewritten sermon she decided to do her own thing. God blessed. She did very well. She talked about the plan of salvation and gave some of her own testimony and then summarized all of the meetings. Afterwards we all went outside and took group pictures. As an appreciation the church gave Jonathan and Beck a pair of their traditional dress.
Then the fun began. The church had a big social event. After another great supper we all set in a large circle on the lawn. Then the games began. We had so much fun!!! We learned how to do the traditional dance. It was really simple. But I am not one for dancing so it took me a little to learn. We really had a great time the whole evening. We didn’t finish until 10 pm! We were so tired. And then it took another hour to get back to the hotel so I didn’t get to bed until 11. A fun and full day. I won’t forget it any time soon.