After a welcomed night of rest, the Puerto Rico Mission Team woke to sunshine, warm temperatures, and ready to begin our task. After a time of fellowship we enjoyed a filling breakfast and has a short team meeting.

Warmly Welcomed at Church

After a short 5 minute walk up he street to the Methodist church, we arrived to singing already in progress. We found out later that this was the second service. One service runs right into the next with a few people coming and going, but many staying for both services. Our service lasted until 12:30. After finding seats, the Pastor welcomed us to the service explaining to the congregation (in Spanish) the reason why we were all there. Our team leader, Pastor Beth, was asked to say a few words (English translated by our interpreter into Spanish). Many in the service took opportunities then and later to personally greet the members of the team thanking us for coming to PR to help.

Church was a mix of lively worship singing, scripture readings, times of prayer, and preaching. It did not feel like two hours long! Children were in the service for the first hour, then marched to the front of the sanctuary, then released to Sunday School. Later at the end of the service, the children marched back into the service to show everyone what they did in Sunday School. The teacher briefly told what was learned (in English for our benefit), then the children went back to their parents. The church was even thoughtful enough to ask those that could translate find a place near groups of us so that the message could be translated for our benefit, too. The pastor preached from the Gospel of John about the time when Jesus changed he water into wine.  After church, again, many came and gave us hugs and thanked us for coming. We were blessed by their warm welcome.

Sightseeing and Bio-luminescence

After lunch the team filled both vans to head to he city of Ponce more than an hour west of the camp.

The team members had time to walk around the city, enjoy the Caribbean architecture, visit the lovely parks, and a few even walked quite a distance to visit the art museum. Most of the team did have a chance to go into the beautiful cathedral in the center of the city.  Well maintained and used for regular services, the Catholic church even had a large pipe organ in the back balcony.  We wondered if it was still used.  Half of the team had arranged an outing another hour and half further to see algae that, when disturbed, give off light. They suited up went into the water after dark to have a “Tinkerbell” experience.

Except for the team that had driven the furthest, the rest went to bed early as Monday morning would be an early rise at 6AM.