We arrived at our destination in Angol, Chile early on Sunday morning. We were mostly refreshed from our plane ride after sleeping on those wonderful buses. We drove to El Vergel Methodist Agricultural School which will be our home and workplace for the next two weeks.
Sunday is a day of worship in Chile just as it is in the U.S.A. We were blessed to worship with our Chilean brothers and sisters in Christ at the Emmaus Methodist Church in Angol. The church is the Methodist church for the neighborhood of Emmaus in the City of Angol. This is the church where John Elmore (our covenant mission partner) and his wife Christina are active members.
The woship service starts at noon and includes all the elements of worship that we include in our worship services at home … prayer, Scripture, the offering, music and a sermon. A meaningful time in the service for us was when we were received as missionaries. Our reception by the Emmaus church was much like our commissioining at Bluff Park church. We were called to the altar and introduced to the congregation. After the introduction we knelt at the altar while the Pastor of the church prayed a prayer of blessing over us just as Mike had prayed a prayer of blessing over us when we were commissioined at Bluff Park. We then shared the greeting from our congregation that was spoken by Mike at our commissioning.
This time of worship reminded me again of how much we have in common with our brothers and sisters around the world. The difference in language is a bit of a challenge but the smiles on the faces and the hospitable reception more than makes up for that. The Pastor preached on John chapter 4. His text was the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. It was taken from the same set of lectionary readings that we are using in our Wednesday morning Lenten service. Yet another connection with our brothers and sisters. The essence of the sermon was that Jesus didn’t discriminate against others so we shouldn’t discriminate against others. That, as they say, will preach, no matter what the country or language. Yet another connection. Being here reminds me again that in Christ we are deeply connected one with another.
We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon resting in order to get ready for the work week.
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