Alicia Comes to Church

After we finished singing, I was working to transfer my message notes from One Drive to my tablet so I could record with my phone, but it wasn’t working. I kept getting an error report: “No people found. There is no one nearby to share with.” I grabbed a screenshot of the error because it felt so true.

As I continued to fiddle with my instruments, Shawn and Seth were sitting on my shoulders, messing with my hair. They were pulling it back and sideways and nearly out. Having six small-ish children, I can mostly ignore being mildly tortured while I work.

The dogs began barking as I finally got the Word document to open up. Someone looked out the window to see that Alicia was walking up to the door. What a surprise! I think she was last here in early January.

I had the presence of mind to pat my hair down somewhat as I shook the monkeys off my shoulders. Later I checked the mirror and laughed aloud. I’m sure that’s the most rumpled I’ve looked while delivering a sermon. Oh, well.

Alicia brought her sister along. I spoke about the immutability of God. It is both a comfort and a terror to consider the fact of God’s unchanging character. We choose which is true for us, comfort or terror, by the life we choose to live.

After the message, I talked with Alicia while Steph and China finished lunch preparations. She said she had met and talked with Esmeralda sometime in the last number of weeks. Esmeralda told her she can’t come to church because she’s afraid of Fernando. I don’t know what that might mean exactly.

I told Alicia about some of the things we’ve faced recently. She distressedly asked the air why these things must come on us. I suggested that they all happened after China came, so maybe she’s responsible. That made Alicia laugh, but then she quickly explained to China that it couldn’t be that because China is beautiful and a help and a blessing and just like a daughter to Steph and so on. China smiled at her in benign ignorance.

Alicia and her sister stayed for lunch. Of course, Alicia wanted to check all the animals, so we did a quick tour with her giving advice along the way. They left soon after lunch because there are no vehicles out on Sundays, but they were hoping to find a moto, which is what they came on.

I sent the message out as usual to the WhatsApp group of people here. Emilio messaged me an hour later and thanked me for the message and said it blessed him. Rafael also messaged later and thanked me but said they were with family for the day again.

I received a few calls and messages from friends yesterday afternoon and evening. I was feeling my cup filling up more and more. That was encouraging.

We also received an invitation to visit the church in Huaral, Peru. Levi called, so I asked him about it, and he encouraged us to consider going. If we went, we would likely fly from Cusco to Lima.

Steph is now past six months, so we’re not sure about traveling. But as Levi pointed out, she was further along with Walter when we flew to Peru. A round-trip ticket would cost between $30-$40 a person, it looks like. We shall see.