Day 4

Today was the Sunday service here at the First Babtist Church of Chalchuapa, it was quite an experience I believe for all of us.  We enjoyed the Spanish music, but can't say that we can quite sing along yet, although we're to the point where we're catching the meaning of the songs and prayers.  Mr. Hanson is actually learning quite a lot from the Pastor Otto's twins, Hector and Otto.  Pastor Otto gave a pastoral prayer that we tried to follow along with, but lost track after about 5 minutes haha.  Mr. Matt gave the sermon that he gave a couple Wednesday nights ago, but had to cut it in half so the translator could translate it into English for us.  We also got the privilage of getting to attend Sunday School, which I really liked.  All of the youth was going to go to their youth classroom, but some people from the church made Gracie and Courtney go to their age's classroom, where they didn't understand a word said, and then they made Reid leave us and go off into a room all by himself.  Really, Gabe should have gone with him, but not being able to communicate with us, they thought he was in high school.  We had a translator, and so did Reid, and all of us got ice cream afterwards.  Malory and I are in agreement that that is a practice that our church should adopt. :) It was a great experience, and we learned a lot from the lesson as well.  They have something here at the church here every day, and sometimes twice a day, so they keep us on our feet.  We are finding that as much as we are here to serve them, they are teaching us to serve as well by driving us around everywhere and showing us great hospitality.  It has been a pleasure to get to know Pastor Otto and his family, and everyone else from the church, despite the language barrier for most of us.  We all agree that it seems like that part of the vacation where you dread the day when you will leave but it's right around the corner, and we can't believe that it's just the beginning!