Hello and happy Sabbath everyone! After feeling a little homesick on Friday, I wanted to stay busy on Sabbath to avoid the blues. Church starts at 10 AM (for a little less sleeping in than I get at CVC) and Sabbath school follows. It's all in Spanish, and sometimes it gets a little hard to stay awake. Today, however, I enjoyed church immensely despite the language barrier. This week's music was lovely, with a small orchestra of around a dozen people playing while we sang hymns. They also did a fantastic rendition of Jesu Joy for offering. The man who preached the sermon this week spoke very clearly and I was able to understand a lot of what he was talking about! In addition, he read off where to find the Bible verses in English since sometimes it's hard to catch "Juan veintiseis catorce" in the middle of a string of spanish phrases. At the end, he summed up three points in both Spanish and English.
After reading my friend Kayla's blog that morning before church, I kept thinking about the huge network of SDAs all over the world. She's a missionary in Ukraine right now, and we have lots of other friends SMing or Task Forcing. As I sat through the program, I considered all those friends worshiping around the world in many different ways: Kayla in Ukrain, Katy in Paulu, Rachel in Thailand, and Elena and all of my friends back at Union. Even though I'd sort of thought about it before, suddenly it hit me that even when we aren't here, even when we all go back to Union or home for the summer or to our next adventure, these little (and big) churches will carry on just has they have. When I'm back at Union and Pastor Rich is talking about Shaboting and lighting the Sabbath Candle, the people here will be waking up for church. What a crazy and awesome network our church has created around this world!
Anyway, for lunch the church was very excited to have a haystack feed to kick off the new school year. They also had some other traditional Spanish foods to go with it and the ever-present pan (bread). One of these was soup that seemed to be mostly made out of oil with a few carrot shreds and onion pieces floating in it. They also have different veggie meat here. It's not bad but I do miss my good old Morning Star and Worthington favorites!
Once potluck was over, Justin, Shannon, her brother Josh, Rachel, Ryan and I decided to walk back to the Castillo de Sagunt. On the way we saw lots of people dressed up in very fancy, old-looking costumes. Once we reached the top of the castle, we saw (and heard) a huge parade going on in the city beneath us. Yesterday was a precurser to the Valencia Fallas parade/festival held in March. It was so interesting to hear all the music and see the women in their huge, pouffy dresses!
After reading my friend Kayla's blog that morning before church, I kept thinking about the huge network of SDAs all over the world. She's a missionary in Ukraine right now, and we have lots of other friends SMing or Task Forcing. As I sat through the program, I considered all those friends worshiping around the world in many different ways: Kayla in Ukrain, Katy in Paulu, Rachel in Thailand, and Elena and all of my friends back at Union. Even though I'd sort of thought about it before, suddenly it hit me that even when we aren't here, even when we all go back to Union or home for the summer or to our next adventure, these little (and big) churches will carry on just has they have. When I'm back at Union and Pastor Rich is talking about Shaboting and lighting the Sabbath Candle, the people here will be waking up for church. What a crazy and awesome network our church has created around this world!
Anyway, for lunch the church was very excited to have a haystack feed to kick off the new school year. They also had some other traditional Spanish foods to go with it and the ever-present pan (bread). One of these was soup that seemed to be mostly made out of oil with a few carrot shreds and onion pieces floating in it. They also have different veggie meat here. It's not bad but I do miss my good old Morning Star and Worthington favorites!
Once potluck was over, Justin, Shannon, her brother Josh, Rachel, Ryan and I decided to walk back to the Castillo de Sagunt. On the way we saw lots of people dressed up in very fancy, old-looking costumes. Once we reached the top of the castle, we saw (and heard) a huge parade going on in the city beneath us. Yesterday was a precurser to the Valencia Fallas parade/festival held in March. It was so interesting to hear all the music and see the women in their huge, pouffy dresses!
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Inside a room of the castle.
