Today we all went to church--Iglesia Cristiana Evangelica de Chamartin (Evangelical Christian Church of Chamartin). It was so encouraging to see so many happy people coming together to worship! The sermon was entitled "Soporta la Tentacion." ("Withstanding Temptation). There are accents missing in these Spanish words, because I don't know how to make them on my keyboard, so I apologize to those of you who notice these things. But I digress....
Anyway, the pastor preached from the book of James (which is "Santiago" in Spanish--of course, right?) 1:12-18. I prayed just as we were singing at the beginning of the service that I would be able to recall enough of my Spanish to understand the songs and the sermon, and I was able to comprehend about 80-85% of everything. Enough to take notes in my leaflet in Spanish, so I felt pretty satisfied. It was a great sermon, talking about how we go from sinful thoughts, to formulating a plan, to carrying out the plan, which leads to death. Then he talked about how to break the cycle, which is at the moment the sinful thought enters your mind--fix your thoughts on God. If you never progress past this first stage, you'll never find yourself in the death spiral of sin having a grip on you. In the power of Christ, we can triumph over sin.
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| Getting ready for church |
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| The pastor starting the sermon |
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| Ruth at church |
After church, we came home and had dinner, with the Spain regional director and another OMS missionary from Australia in tow. This evening I'll be packing up and getting ready for my flight back to Dublin, where I'll spend the night and then depart for the States on Tuesday morning.
I'll leave you with a striking photo of Max the Dog, the only member of the Castro family who's not bilingual (unless speaking "food" is another language)!
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| Max the Dog |
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