La Iglesia de Las Siete Regiones

I have been praying that God would show me a new church and a family while I’m down here for 4 months, and he has provided.  A covenant missionary that my Mom worked with when she came down to Oaxaca told me that there was a short-term missionary going to the Institute for Spanish lessons.  Her name is Amy Mullin, and she was relocated from Monterey to Oaxaca because of the drug-related violence in the north.  She attends la iglesia de las siete regiones and invited me to come this Sunday.  What an answer to prayers!  The church is a little far away, but it was worth every minute of the drive.  I found a new family there who welcomed me with open arms.  The service is kind of an all-morning thing, which I was apprehensive about at first, but it was great.  During the the first part of the service, the youth led us in worship, with plenty of time and songs to worship our creator.  Songs are very hard to understand in Spanish, and although I only caught a few words here and there, it was clear that this church worshiped with their hearts, so I had no problem.  Next were announcements and testimonies, and it was great to hear things that the Lord is doing here in Oaxaca.  After that, the kids and youth were dismissed, and I went to a young adults group of 12 people, aged 14-30 to study with the pastor of the church, Antonio.  We studied the miracle of Jesus walking on water, and I made the mistake of making a joke that I only had an English Bible.  They were only too willing to lend me theirs, so I ended up reading the passage.  Hopefully they could understand what this gringo was saying.  One of the best parts of church was realizing how universal God is:  He is the same in Alaska as he is in Washington as he is in China and Oaxaca, and we can worship him whenever we want.  What an awesome thought.

After the service, a daughter of a family had a birthday, and the whole church joined in praying and dedicating a new year to the Lord.  Later, we stuffed ourselves with tamales, a hamburger  (a nice change to my constant supply of tortillas), geletina, and birthday cake.  It was great to see the family atmosphere at the church and how everyone took part of this child’s birthday.  I also became very popular with the children because I showed them my camera and that it has a video function.  There was no end to the pictures!  I’ll be sure to post some up on facebook soon.

The youth of the church welcomed me like I had always been there, and were not too shy to get an Alaskan involved.  They asked me all about Alaska, and found out that I played the piano.  I wouldn’t put it past them to figure out some way to make me play in worship.  I was definitely pretty rusty after so long without practicing, but we’ll see what the future holds.  All in all, a prayer was answered, and I received a new family.