July 1

After breakfast and devotions (aptly lead by Gary) we climbed aboard the Gospel Bus and headed down the highway to the two house churches we were joining for services this morning.

Anna, Bob, Marcia and I went to Atal Tea Estate where we joined about 27-28 Adavasi brothers and sisters in Christ for worship. Actually, I think they’d already been going for 45 minutes or so by the time we arrived. We sang three or four songs and then Sanjay introduced us to this congregation (one of the few he is the pastor for). I then gave the first sermon of my short preaching career. Nobody threw anything at me or boo’d or hissed, and I didn’t faint or lose my breakfast. I didn’t notice anyone falling asleep. I was nervous but let God lead and hopefully the Holy Spirit spoke to some hearts. Besides, Bob (the double-palindrome), came up after me to fill in the blanks for the stuff I might have missed.

Then we got picked up by the other team, who had gone to Tokoria to meet with a different house church. You’ll have to ask Andrew, Gary, Jarrod or Katie for the details of their experience. Together we went to Merry View Tea Estate to meet with our interpreters and to share teaching about the church that Bob is going to preach next Sunday at the BIG gathering (and that we will be sharing with our discipleship groups later.

They fed us some lunch and we came back to our base camp, the Hotel Appolo. We’re getting cleaned up for dinner and I’m trying to get some photos and an audio clip sent for TACC worship service in a few hours.