Weeks 17 & 18: Washed

Last weekend my church, Templo Bautista de Atenas, celebrated its 10^th anniversary. Church services were held at the nearby church camp and we had lunch and games afterwards. It was a fun time of celebration and thankfulness for what God has been doing in Atenas through this church body. Several of the church members stood up and gave a testimony of how the church (the people) had blessed them so much in the past years. I really appreciated that time, because I feel like too often we never hear about the praises that are filling our lives. It was the largest attendance I’ve seen since being here—somewhere around 80 to 90 people. Typically, our Sunday services have only about 50-60 people.

Besides the anniversary celebration, we also celebrated the baptisms of 11 people. It was the first time I have ever seen a baptism done in a swimming pool—a dirty swimming pool for that matter(the pastor actually told us that the pump was broken and there would be no swimming after the service). Quite a unique experience! I imagined in my mind how it looked when John was baptizing people in the Jordan. Was the river water similar to this pool water? Either way, this was the biggest celebration of the day—a visible picture of repentance and obedience to God. It didn’t matter how dirty that swimming pool water was because Christ baptizes not with water but with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8).



Pastor Yeremy reads the Scriptures before the baptisms.



Other than the church festivities, it has been rather tranquil around here recently--although, I do have a few more species to add my ‘captured-critter list’:

 Last week I came home one evening to find a strange creature fluttering about in my house. When I inquired about it, my host mom said that it was bird that had become trapped in the house. I glanced back up to confirm my suspicions that the “bird” was actually a bat---“umm…yeah, that’s not a bird.” I didn’t know the Spanish word for bat, so I reverted back to the old game of Pictionary and other words that might work. Somewhere between me using my fingers as vampire fangs and “Dracula”, my mom and brother must have understood because they shot out of the house like the devil himself was on their heels. I figured it couldn’t be too hard to catch a bat—it couldn’t be harder than catching a chicken, right? I grabbed a blanket and started trying to throw it over Dracula. The high ceilings in the kitchen and the sonar of the bat made it tough to capture him very gently so I switched to more barbaric methods. I used the blanket as whip and bounced him off the wall and onto the ground. It didn’t kill him but it stunned him long enough for me to escort him outside with a plastic crate.

An uninvited house guest.

Also, on the same Sunday as the baptisms, we found a small snake in the pool a few hours after the church service. My host dad plucked him out with a skimmer and threw it down on the concrete. Before it could regain its composure I reached down (I really don’t know why) and grabbed it just behind its head. We weren’t sure if it was venomous or not, so I took him way off into the woods and let him go. I think everyone there, including me, had the same question: Was the snake in the pool during the baptisms?!

So, I guess that I have two praises this week: No rabies, and no snake bites.