Hey everyone!
Sorry for the delayed response. As I mentioned before, we arrived on Saturday and checked in with you guys, but the internet shop we went to was closed on Sunday and Monday due to a local holiday, Flag Day. Because of this, we had no way to contact anyone until today.
The people in Argentina are wonderful! Even out in the public places, the "natives" are warm and friendly and willing to communicate with us the best they can. Let me say how impressed I was with church service on Sunday. Including Rebecca and me, there were 7 people. So why was I impressed? Well, as I said, this was a major holiday in Argentina and everyone was travelling and out of town. Now, if our preacher and almost 100% of the congregation were going to be gone, I dare say we would cancel church...after all...we do delay it for the super bowl and such. Not only did they meet, they sang, partook the Lord's Supper and an elderly man, Oscar, willingly read a few scriptures for us to think on. I thought this showed so much devotion to Christ. Most impressive was a 19 year old young man named Joaquim showed up. I don't know too many 19 year old guys who would get outta bed on a holiday to go to church.
Kayla and Nune have been wonderful. They are the 2 ladies we are staying with. They have taken us under their wings and have loved us a lifetime already. There is a tradition here of drinking tea or mate (pronounced with a long i sound for the a mItay). The catch is, there is only one type of special cup with a straw that everyone uses. Its a time of fellowship and serving. When you finish your turn of drinking the tea, you clean the straw, refill the cup with tea and sugar and pass it to the next person. Its such a calming time of fellowship. Even when we went to a local market, everyone at the booths were drinking their mate with the people in the booths next to them. We, as Americans, could learn a great deal from our South American neighbors in learning to take this time to stop and fellowship! Rebecca and I have now both bought mate and will be bringing it back with us! (I wonder if I can have tea with my dogs? ha!)
We started to reading today after what seemed like an eternity! Stories are already emerging that we will share with you as we go. I want to leave you with this statement one of my readers, Gonzalo, just said today, "Jesus is not a noun, He is a verb."
Will check in later! Go drink some tea and visit with your friends and family!
Deb
