The week between Palm Sunday and Easter is called “Semana Santa” in Central America. Semana Santa means Holy Week and the entire week is off in celebration of it.
Each year the CRCNA-Latin America holds a spiritual retreat for all the missionaries - career, volunteers, partners. This year it was held in Nicaragua, which was great for us being so close and not have to travel a long distance. As it so happens every other year the retreat is English and this was the year for Spanish. It was great practice for us to train our ears, but there was also translation supplied over head sets if we wanted to take advantage of it.
Everyone came pouring in starting on Friday night until Saturday night beginning the days away with relaxing on the beach and reconnecting with each other. We saw that this was a great time for the long term people to reconnect, giving encouragement and support. Oh the value of friendships and relationships with people who understand the experiences you are having. We so enjoyed getting to know so many people serving with CRWM and CRWRC, hearing their stories of faith, trials, and joys. What a life they are living!
On Sunday morning we gathered to worship together and praise God on Palm Sunday. For the first time ever I experienced what the waving of palm branches was really like! How beautiful that day two thousand years ago must have been! We broke bread together and shared drink in communion remembering what Christ did for us...an experience I will never forget. At the end of service we then witnessed the baptism of Elise Holtrop, another sign of God’s beautiful promises to us.
Monday and Tuesday we attended four sessions and were taken through the process of “The Dance of Racial Reconciliation”. This was a very valuable process to go through to understand the difference between the way the world views racism and how we as Christians are to play an active part in racial reconciliation. During these two days there was also plenty of time for beach volleyball, card games, corn hole, swimming and walks on the beach.
It was sad for us in saying goodbye to everyone knowing that there are good chances that we won’t see many of them again. But who knows what the future holds, as a year ago we wouldn’t have put ourselves here – God has many surprises for us!
Each year the CRCNA-Latin America holds a spiritual retreat for all the missionaries - career, volunteers, partners. This year it was held in Nicaragua, which was great for us being so close and not have to travel a long distance. As it so happens every other year the retreat is English and this was the year for Spanish. It was great practice for us to train our ears, but there was also translation supplied over head sets if we wanted to take advantage of it.
Everyone came pouring in starting on Friday night until Saturday night beginning the days away with relaxing on the beach and reconnecting with each other. We saw that this was a great time for the long term people to reconnect, giving encouragement and support. Oh the value of friendships and relationships with people who understand the experiences you are having. We so enjoyed getting to know so many people serving with CRWM and CRWRC, hearing their stories of faith, trials, and joys. What a life they are living!
On Sunday morning we gathered to worship together and praise God on Palm Sunday. For the first time ever I experienced what the waving of palm branches was really like! How beautiful that day two thousand years ago must have been! We broke bread together and shared drink in communion remembering what Christ did for us...an experience I will never forget. At the end of service we then witnessed the baptism of Elise Holtrop, another sign of God’s beautiful promises to us.
Monday and Tuesday we attended four sessions and were taken through the process of “The Dance of Racial Reconciliation”. This was a very valuable process to go through to understand the difference between the way the world views racism and how we as Christians are to play an active part in racial reconciliation. During these two days there was also plenty of time for beach volleyball, card games, corn hole, swimming and walks on the beach.
It was sad for us in saying goodbye to everyone knowing that there are good chances that we won’t see many of them again. But who knows what the future holds, as a year ago we wouldn’t have put ourselves here – God has many surprises for us!
2 comments:
This week sounds like an amazing expierence.
Glad you could participate in it.
Roy V
Happy Birthday to the both of you today!!! Hope you have a nice day! Love Aunt Caroline
Post a Comment