Sunday Service and Free Time

Just a little sidenote to all you blog readers... "The lost pages of the Uruguay Team diaries" (yesterdays' blog) is up!!!!! To stay in chronological order, please read the post titled 2nd clinic prior to this one!


Hello everyone!
This is Becca here, or as my friends in Uruguay call me, Rebecca (pronnounced ray-BAY-kah). Never in my whole life have I ever enjoyed hearing someone say my name as much as I do here. The people here are so full of love an it is so evident just by the tone of their voice.
I am here to write to you about what the team did today. We went to the Foursquare Church in Rio Branco, Uruguay. We attended the service with the locals and the regular church attendees. I was very excited to see my friends that I have made throughout the course of our time here. I got to meet their families and it was just very exciting. The church service started off in a few songs of worship led by Anderson who is the worship leader at the church. We sang in Spanish and although I could not understand the words we were singing, I completely comprehended the love that we shared in Jesus and in eachother. It was so clear to me that in the church, everyone was part of one big family with the common father, God. After a few songs of praise, the United States team performed a couple of dramas for the congregation. The locals embraced the dramas and could understand them partly because there was no dialogue and partly because we had a God-Sent interpeter to translate our explanation in Spanish. Looking back, I still have no idea where he came from. He continued to be the translator for the duration of the service. Then, some of the teenagers of the church presented a dance full of Uruguayan culture. It was really neat to see their culture and the super cool costumes they got to wear.





One of the leaders of our team, Jerry, spoke for the church. He just wanted to tell the people how much God loved them and didn´t want to leave any doubts. We had an altar call after his teaching and many people came forward for prayer. Two people accepted Jesus into their hearts for the first time! One of the ladies that did was in her older years, but God has no bounds and he accepts his children with open arms and from all walks of life. It was exciting to see all the work He had been doing before our very eyes.


Many people were very touched during the time of prayer.





I know that for me personally, I definitely was. I was brought to tears on more than one instance. I absolutely love my brothers and sisters that are here in Uruguay, but the language barrier was really kind of frustrating at times. But I was overwhelmed with what I have to look forward to one day when I am in heaven. I will be able to talk to Tatiana, Marianna, Maria, Natasha, and Edison without restrain. In heaven there will be no language barriers and that thought fills me with so much joy. For now, I let my actions and a smile speak on behalf of the lack of words we can share. I have never felt so much love and I can`t believe that these people are already my family! I kind of think of this trip as a mini family reunion where I get to meet my brothers and sisters before I would have been able to in heaven.


Anyways, after the service, we took part in communion as a church and it seemed to solidify our brotherhood. During the service, I was sitting next to some people from Brazil who walked like 5 miles to come to church! They were praying in Porteguese, Pastor Sydney was praying in Spanish, and the team was praying in English. It was so cool! ok, so after church, we said some of our goodbyes to the people we had met and loved on during the week.


Then, we went to the Brazil-Uruguay border to do some shopping! Then, we went to lunch and ordered 30 meters of pizza! The pizza was very good but we had some left over to say the least.




Our bus driver took us to a lake where many locals go to see sunsets. Unfortunately, I had fallen asleep (suprise suprise), but most of the team members got out and played along the beach. The stories sounded like a lot of fun.
We called it an early tonight. I think we have our final medical clinic for this leg of the trip tomorrow, so we need to get our rest. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. God has blessed us so much on this trip, and I am so excited to see what happens in the coming days. For now, Ciao! (I came to find out that they don`t say `Adios` here, they say ciao!) goodnight.
In Him,
(Re)Becca


Here are a couple of photos showing the bridge between Uruguay and Brazil. We cross this border everyday in order to get to our clinics. Above: Jerry & Leah...Below: Richard & Ricky. (That's for you, Jackie!!!)