Maybe a Sabbath?

It’s Monday again and our “day off,” which may actually turn out to be the case today.  We had planned to take the Hendersons to Lome or maybe to a pool somewhere for a little relaxation before we head off for the north tomorrow.  But car problems resulting from our drive to church yesterday have put the car in the shop and we’re stuck at home, at least for the morning.  For me, at least, it is a welcome break.  Maybe I can observe a little of that Sabbath principle that I lamented missing last week.

We drove out yesterday morning to a village called Bagou-kope.  We had been warned that the road was bad and that we might not be able to make it.  There is one place where the road was washed out and there was a big gulley down the middle.  It had rained the night before, so every effort to go around or straddle the gulley led us sliding towards it.  We were able to fill in part of the holes with rocks and get enough traction to go up, off the road, and around the gulley and continue on our way; but not before doing some damage to the underside of the car.  That’s what’s being worked on today.

A little further down the road we stopped and picked up some Christians, who were going the same way we were, to the “cluster worship.”  This is when several churches from the same area get together for worship.  At one point we had 21 people in and on our ten-passenger SUV – 14 inside and 7 on the luggage rack.

Worship was exhilarating but long—about 3 hours—quite a stretch for our twelve year old American visitor.  I preached one of the two sermons, speaking on true friendship, how Jesus laid down his life for his friends, and we show our friendship to Jesus through obedience.  Some of the local children had prepared a program they presented, and we were fed black-eyed peas with spicy oil and ground cassava before we left.  We found an alternate route home, but had to listen to scary noises coming from under the car.

We made it home about 3:00 p.m., and guests started arriving at 4:00 for our team Easter celebration.  We did the Easter egg thing with the kids, my visiting friend, Alan, led the devotional, and then had a team meal featuring lamb and beef roasts that Maureen had prepared.  Mmm, mmm good.