Today's "End of day" update is a little earlier because our NightTime Open Air show was rained out....we are all back at the Hotel afer a long and succesful day :)
Going back to last night...
We did a "Road Show" that was a ROAD SHOW! We were set up on and in front of a little sidewalk, that was on a bridge! It was a small bridge that went over a creek in the middle of a crossing of 3 roads that come together. The music went very well, and we set up the puppets behind the bridge support, what a blast!
Alex Lam shared a very personal testimony that truly spoke to the hearts of the people. Kiegan Basso also did a wonderful job of sharing his story and offering a challenge for people to follow Christ.
Rusty did an outstanding job in one of the more difficult places we've had to preach. As I said, we were right on a bridge, and there was constant traffic of cars, bikes, and pedestrians. He was able to stay focused and told about a situation in his family, and then explained the Gospel clearly. Following his message, our entire team went into the crowd and had a lot of conversations with people and invited them to the church we were at this morning. Your prayers for him were heard and God definitely answered them. I've actually challenged him to think about giving the message again tomorrow night, assuming we don't get rained out. Not sure yet if I'll ask him to do it for sure, so prayers not only for Rusty as he thinks about it, but also for each of us for whichever ones does the Gospel message at the evening show.
So it was a great night! And got us fired up and prepared for our long day today....
Again, I"m sorry I can't upload any pictures, my connection here is one small bar and it just takes too long. But I can't wait for you to see the pictures of your students dressed up for Sunday Services here in Jamaica. The girls all had hats, and the boys all wore ties! Quite a sight!
The first Church we visited was called Bethesda Gospel Hall. They had a "Communion Service" at 9:00am that lasted an hour. This was a pretty solemn service and went for about an hour. Although they had no instruments, or music, they had "old school" books with words to hymns (not hymnals). It was kind of cool to hear them sing and praise by memory only, without the beat of instruments or notes on the page.
At 10:00am They had their "community service". This started out with more hymns led by the Pastor or the Deacon in charge of music. Right before they turned the service over to us, they asked us to stand and sang a song to us...it was a very neat and warm song. They also asked if there were any birthdays, and a number of people told them that Allyson had her birthday on the 4th. So they asked her to stand and the whole church sang her happy birthday!
Our group played a few songs and did the "Everything" drama and it went very well. Kylie Shared her testimony and it totally tied into the entire morning's message. They asked me to give the message (I was prepared that this might happen, and had prepared a lesson from John 9 about the blind man that come to know Christ as he his blindness was cured. I tried to stretch out the message, as they are used to people preaching for an hour or more. I was able to go about 45 minutes. (I just kept asking myself "What would Jeff Gentry do?") Although we were at the church for about 2 1/2 hours of the service, the Pastor said, "We will be getting out quite early today" as a part of his closing remarks...kind of funny :)
From there we went to the second church just up the street and it was another 2 hours of church. We did puppets, some music, puppets and a drama. Kevin Mays shared his testimony (after playing in the band) and it was great to hear how he felt the calling of God to start going to church. (It has also been a blast to watch Kevin play bass because he's left-handed. We don't have a left-handed bass. Kevin has been practicing for months with the bass upside-down/backwards! So he's playing the bottom strings of a right handed bass, very cool!) During the drama, right at the exact second where "God" (Rusty) makes the rain fall, it actually began to rain outside! With the doors and windows open, this was an awesome effect! What a great God moment!
One of our contacts here did the message and the power went out halfway thru the message as it was POURING rain. Which it did on and off throughout the day. He still had a great message and I actualy made a few notes for a future sermon :)
After lunch we went to our VBS and your prayers for Cari were answered as well as she did a great job of introducing Elijah. They loved the puppets and I may or may not have had some extra fun behind the puppet stage throughout the show :)
We will be going back in the morning for about 3 hours of VBS...
I'd love to write a little more, but I'm getting yelled at because we're going out for Jamaican Ice Cream!
The day was great!
God Rulz!