Children's Day

We just got back from Matagalpa the other big mountain town. Very hilly curvy roads. All well paved highway--but just the difficulty of the terrain makes the ride tough on your toosh.

The group from the Hwy Church in Arkansas, and the group from Fort Worth Christian and most all the full time Nicaraguan workers spent the day to make a "children's day". Rotation stations with games and crafts a bible skit...but mainly just hanging out with kids and playing. It was sponsored by the churches in Matagalpa (4) who are having a unity service tomorrow. They are very excited about the unity service--but I was excited about today. We call worship time "service" but today taking care of at least 300 kids was really service, and definitely required unity.

It was neat to see folks (here, particularly) give kids priority attention--that seems to be rare when churches gather. I think it was beautiful that the first point of connection for these congregations was a) showing love to their kids and the kids in their community and b) working. There is such power in work! More than meetings, more than pot-luck suppers, more than sitting in a building together--I am convinced working together is the real heart of fellowship. I think nothing could prepare this body better to truly worship in unity tomorrow morning--than their work together today.

Also--did I mention there were like a ka-jillion people there?!?! I think Jonathan and I are fairly practiced and comfortable with big groups of kids--but--whew!

there are plenty more people--but I ran out of lens space