As I sit back and reflect.....

06.26.2011

It's 11:30am and I've been in this church service for almost two hours! Two hours?!?!..... and we haven't finished up the specials from the other churches, we haven't had communion, and there is food afterwards. Did I mention I was up at 5:30am and off to breakfast before church at 6:30am??
So, I am sitting in the front row praying. Praying that God intervenes in the lives of the people that are standing at the altar. It looks to be about 50 people. People who have never given their life to Christ. People who are rededicating their life, and also people asking for forgiveness....so here I sit praying on behalf of these people. As I pray, God begins to fill my head with this.....
I am sitting in a cement building that has the most tacky, shiny, turquoise blue curtain thingys hanging from the wall. I'm in the front row so the music is blaring out of the speakers with people singing who sometimes hit the right note and when the singer hits the right note, the keyboard player misses his note. I don't understand most of what is being said as it's all in Spanish. I do understand a few words, but can't make out the whole sentence. And when it's a song that I know we sing in the united states, I still can't sing it in English because they sing in Spanish so loud my mind can't function in English. 
Behind me there is a group of boys talking so loudly, you would think it was a sports event. In front of me, a little girl dashes from her mother to her brother every 5 seconds. 
It's 12:30pm....finally the specials are over....it's communion time and then time for lunch....or that's what you imagine....
Yes, I forget the last song we have to sing, a prayer, offering time, a prayer, giving a gift to jeremy and I, the regional director and his wife, and the missionaries, and again more prayers.....we stand up and sit down more than a catholic!! Ha!! 
So.....I say all this not because I'm complaining, but because.....the curtains might be tacky, but its the culture. The music is loud, but young and old alike are clapping their hands and dancing for Jesus. The kids are rambunctious, but guess what? They are in church!! And all the praying???....well 15 people were saved today!
I sit back at 1:15pm waiting for my turn to get my food and I thank God for the place I'm at today. I am so thankful for this 2 week adventure that he has taken me on. I thank him for allowing me to share my faith and love for Him to the people of Panama. I thank him for the people who have supported this trip and even those who haven't. And I am most thankful that when I go home to my "perfect" "Norta-Norta American" church service where the decor matters, the music has to be perfect or the Holy Spirit won't come, little kids can't talk in the service, run in the service, and in fact can't even be in the service, and pray more than a couple of times and for what 10 minutes??? NO WAY!!!! , that I will definitely remember why I gather with other believers to worship. It's not about all that, it's about God. 
Please God allow me to remember all of this. Please continue to place these images in my mind.....