Jenny and Jourdain

Jenny, Jourdain and I climbed in a little SUV and slowly climbed up the mountain. As soon as we reached the top, we started to drive down the curvy road into the valley. That was when we had to say goodbye to the beautiful sunset. We drove through the village and then up a steep hill which I soon realized was the driveway. As we popped over the hill, the church was right in front of us. As we unloaded everything, our driver took out her little basket of food and set it up in their little building that doubles as the Sabbath School room and fellowship hall. She called us over to eat, and because I was the guest, I was chosen to pray. We ate short grain brown rice (yummy), stir fry with lots of tofu (a staple here), corn on the cob (not as good as in Wisconsin , but still good) and a dish with green beans, tofu, some other green vegetable in a peanut sauce (the first peanut sauce I have ever liked). While we were waiting for the meeting to start we all laughed about their past bug experiences at their church. Then we saw a huge beetle on the floor struggling to get back onto its feet. We watched it for awhile until this girl got up to walk to the back of the church. Unaware of the bug's whereabouts she stepped right on top of it. The sound of it was hideous… Bzzzzzz….. Step…step… step… CRUNCH! Despite Jenny's feeling of unpreparedness she presented the topic of hypertension (or high blood pressure) to her audience well. It was perfect because her translator was very familiar with the subject. Watching Jourdain was rather amusing. He is much taller than the people here, His head kept hitting the curtain hanging from the ceiling. Thankfully it was not the fan! The sermon he preached is one of my favorites from the series. The title is "Why So Many Denominations". I believe it cleared up many questions that the audience had. Every person shook both Jenny and Jourdain's hands on their way out and said "Salamat Malam" which means "good night". Before we left a few of the locals stayed back and we chatted for a bit. One of them told Jenny, "If you stay here 2 more weeks you will be darker than I am". He promptly put his arm up to hers to compare skin tone. It was very obvious that she did not need to stay two more weeks, because she was already darker than he. We all laughed looked, and after looking at a few more bugs, we hopped in the car for the ride back to our hotel. Like most rides back, we all discussed our favorite part of the sermon and told a few stories how God has proven it true in our lives.

-Ceri