Casas Por Cristo Day 4

Wednesday, June 13

“This experience was more than I dreamed it could be. . . . I shared a bond beyond what I could have imagined.”

Today we put the roof on the house, installed the windows and door, installed the insulation, sealed the roof, and wrapped the house in chicken wire (to hold the stucco). [picture] We took a short lunch so we could get back to the church in time for their Wednesday night service. We just barely made it, all decked out in our Wednesday-work-clothes best. [picture?]

The service was “different.” Except for some translation by Jose, our church pastor, it was entirely in Spanish. Some of the songs seemed to go on forever, especially for those of us who didn’t understand the Spanish. And the worship style was quite unusual for most of us--lots of crying, yelling, talking and waving of hands. Despite all of this, most of us found this worship, in a different country, in a new church, with a strange and different worship style, to be very meaningful and moving. Afterwards almost the entire congregation greeted us as they filed out the front door. The feeling of kinship was almost palpable.

Having already experienced worship for the day, we had a brief dinner and again laid our heads down for (not nearly enough) sleep.