Sunday's are always great days on our international mission trip because they start with a chance to join in worship with a local congregation. We went with the Vidanet staff to Rey de Reyes (King of Kings) church for a morning of worship. It was special to reflect on how our God crosses culture, language, country, and race as we worshipped at the same time as you all in Williamsburg. The church welcomed us and provided a translator for us throughout the service so that we were able to engage with all that was going on.
Following the service and lunch at the church our team headed back to la cuenca. We were all excited for the afternoon because the plan was to split into smaller groups to deliver food, prayers, love, and conversation to the actual homes within la cuenca. La cuenca is basically a bunch of tin-roofed homes that are all attached to one another to form a few big structures that are separated by narrow and muddy pathways. Each group visited a different section of the community along with a few vidanet staff to translate. At each home the group would introduce themselves, give the family a bag of food, ask them about their lives, and close in prayer. Every team came back sharing stories of how the people of la cuenca gladly welcomed them in and were very grateful for the food but just as grateful for the prayers. One group had a man commit his life to Jesus through their conversations with him while other groups heard stories of steadfast faith in the midst of extreme tragedy and pain. It was a powerful day of getting to see the realities of extreme poverty while at the same time seeing the peace and joy of God still being manifested amidst these awful circumstances.
Afterwards we headed back to our headquarters for dinner and our final porch time here at Vidanet (we will have one more at our debrief site). Isaac gave a great message on how to understand why those in poverty are seemingly able to experience happiness in ways that our team in Williamsburg can struggle with and he called it the secret of the poor. He used Luke 12 to quote Jesus in saying that life is not found by simply working hard to build bigger barns to hold all of the stuff we accumulate. Instead, it is only those who are rich towards God that find fulfillment in life. He closed by jumping to Luke 14 as well to use the story of the great banquet to challenge our team to stop building bigger barns and instead build bigger tables that use our resources to welcome other people into the Kingdom of God.
Finally, we closed our evening with another time in small groups to discuss the secret of the poor followed by a time of "sweet fellowship" where we all continued conversations, played music, and bonded with each other. Tomorrow is our last morning in la cuenca before we head to our debrief site in Tamarindo.
