Sabbath refreshment

A wonderful day of worship and fellowship. I (Anna) was in the nursery in the morning, as we’ve decided to leave Mariah in there during services and SS. Our church has no place where we can get English translation for the service other than in the sanctuary. There is no narthex at all, and she is just too loud to stay in right now, so I’m going to be taking my turn periodically in the nursery.

We had lunch with Omar and Griselda (Lily really likes to run around with Griselda’s purse, like she does with Christy Nelson’s in Lafayette). Several others were there as well, and we had a nice time of fellowship, exchanging stories of life experiences. It was also nice to discover that their “after church hospitality” is pretty similar to ours at home, so we can have people over and do things like we would at home and know that they will be comfortable, DV.

The evening service was communion. Pastor Vater preached from Genesis 3, on the fall and its consequences and redemption (interestingly enough, his communion mediation was styled very similarly to how Dave styles his). He made an interesting comment that the Biblical description of heaven includes elements from 3 places: Eden, the Holy of Holies, and Jerusalem.

After the evening service, there was an informal dinner and Bible study/discussion at the home of one of the members (somewhat similar to a Fireside Chat for people of all ages). Since we were there, and everyone else was bilingual (!), they decided to do it in English for us, for which we were very grateful. We discussed methods of Biblical interpretation, and the practical applications that flow from this. As an aside, we were pleased to discover through conversation that many in this church take the keeping of the 4th commandment seriously! Ben and I left encouraged and challenged, and with some very tired children, who did remarkably well given the late hour.