Today was a more "normal" Sunday than most when we go to Cowboy Church. Our good friend and fellow missionary, Carol Wilkinson, went with us today. The record still holds of "no two Sundays alike."
Along the way we did have to slow down for a herd of cows walking down the middle of the road. The cow herder had on his cowboy clothes, was swinging a rope and talking on his cell phone. We just had to laugh out loud. Oh, for the life of a modern-day cowboy.
Carol said he was probably talking to his girlfriend!
We also had to slow down as we passed through a predominantly Catholic town. They had sawdust carpets with lovely designs all down one side of the road. There were small home-made shrines at intervals. Today they were honoring San Juan Bosco, the patron saint of youth.
Due to so much rain the government road crews were working hard to clear the roads. We only had to stop once for dump trucks hauling and dumping mud and rocks as they went back and forth on the road...it was down to just one lane.
We made it to Amberes without any problems.
When we arrived at Cowboy Church we were met by Paco Chuy.
He was there waiting for us. He told us that Elva and Cesar (Cowboy Church leaders) had gone to Agua Blanca for a church/mission start meeting. They would spend the night there tonight and not come back to Amberes until Monday.
Cesar knew that H.Rhea would be there and knew that he was always prepared to lead a Bible Study.
Arturo, Elva's brother and property care-taker, had already set up a table and chairs so we could have the Bible Study inside the church building. We sat around the table and Paco kept making phone calls on his cell phone. He explained that he was calling his wife to find out if she was going to come to church. She was busy in their kitchen making corn tamales.
Yes, she would come, but would have to wait on a three-wheel taxi. Paco and Mari do not own a car so they get to town by either walking or using three-wheel taxis. (There are several in and around Amberes.)
I told him to call her back and tell her that I would drive over and pick her up. He called her back.
Carol and I drove over to their house. Mari Chuy was standing out in the road at the foot of their drive-way. They only have a dirt drive-way which was now just a mud-slide due to so much rain.
On the way back to the church building Mari told about witnessing to her neighbor, Milvia. (Please pray this week for Milvia's salvation.)
Bladimir did not come to church today as there was a soccer game on the soccer field he owns. He had to be there to charge admission and keep an eye on his property and other things.
H.Rhea did a Bible Study on the security of the believer. He tries to stress discipleship lessons as much as possible because he doesn't really know Paco and Mari. We know that both Paco and Mari have made professions of faith. Cesar told us that Paco has not been baptized, but we don't know about Mari. (I think I will just out and ask her next Sunday.)
Arturo is a baptized Christian.
It was just the six of us, and of course, Bruno the faithful dog. Carol commented afterwards that Bruno really was a good church goer. He laid down quietly by the table the whole time we were studying the Bible. When the final "amen" was said after the final prayer, Bruno got up and walked to the front gate.
We all had a big laugh.
I was disappointed that some of the regular members seem to have dropped out. Arturo gave some reasons they were not there. I think one of the main problems is that Cesar has a heart for missions and not a heart for doing a Bible Study. It seems that he and Elva are gone more Sundays than they are at Cowboy Church.
When H.Rhea and I first started helping out at Cowboy Church we had about 30 adults and about 30 children. Lunch was provided every Sunday, with Elva doing most of the cooking. Elva got aggravated that the other ladies wouldn't help and/or folks wouldn't pay for some of the food. She decided that Cowboy Church would just quit providing lunch every Sunday.
The attendance dropped off immediately.
We then started having about 6 to 10 men attend and one family with two little children; this was before Paco and Chuy started attending. I am not sure what it is going to take. I do know that H.Rhea and I love attending and participating when he is in the country. I don't know if we will ever reach "real" cowboys. We love the folks at Amberes. Please join us in praying about this situation.
Before we left the church property Arturo wanted to give us some mangos. He has a neat mango retriever. It is a very long pole with a wire basket on the end. He can reach the top branches of the mango trees with it. He gave us several mangos. Carol got some photos of Arturo knocking mangos into the wire basket.
We gave Paco and Mari a lift home so they wouldn't have to take a taxi. Paco told us to wait. Mari went inside and brought us tamales made from corn. She sent a couple back to Arturo for his lunch.
We stopped on the way out of town to drop off the tamales to Arturo. He met us at the gate just a running. He had been down the street to buy tortillas to go with his tamales. How tasty!
On the way back to the capital we stopped at Vesuvio which is an Italian Restaurant. We got to sit out on the front porch which is next to the wood-burning ovens. They cook their pizzas in wood-burning ovens, scooping them in and out with large wooden paddles.
H.Rhea and Carol both got individual pizzas. I got ravioli. I ate every bite of mine, but both Carol and H.Rhea had enough left over to take some home for later.
H.Rhea loves cold pizza for breakfast.
We were so glad that Carol got to go to church with us. We told her that she will have to go another time as in comparison to most Sundays this one was uneventful.
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