When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush
of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue
rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Acts 2.1-4
This past weekend we were in Davenport, IA, with Casa de Oracion, and Moline, IL, with Templo Alabanza. We visited the Moline church in the morning, and the Davenport church in the evening. Each of these churches primarily speak Spanish, and for those of you who know us well, you know our Spanish language skills are weak (at best). Yet, after talking to the pastors of the churches, we decided that we would try and give Spanish sermons at each of the churches. Randy and I each composed something brief in English, then his friend Hugo translated the sermons for us (and also a prayer and introduction to the group for Elizabeth). A big thank you to him, it was no small task.
But translating the worship service into Spanish was only half the battle, because once it’s translated, we needed lots of help with our pronunciation. The days before Sunday we flooded our Spanish-speaking friends with phone calls and text messages as we sought help in pronunciation. As we prepared, the story of Pentecost took on new meaning for us, as we dropped hints to God about how convenient it would be if the Spirit came down and helped us out.
The Spirit of God was present, even though the gifting of tongues did not take place this morning. On Sunday, the Spirit was present in the members of the churches in their gracious responses towards us. Because of our lack of the gift of tongues, the more appropriate response to our services should have been from Acts 2.12-13, “All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’” But no one did.
At each church, members came up afterwards and gave us big bear hugs (Randy almost was crushed by the surprisingly strong hug of a 70+ year old man), and they were very, very welcoming and accepting. Once again, we were overwhelmed by hospitality as each church stuffed us full of food and sincere thanks for our ministry. Once again we were humbled by the graciousness of our hosts, and at a loss for how to express our thanks.
All this, in spite of the face that we had just spent previous 75 minutes butchering their mother tongue.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush
of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue
rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Acts 2.1-4
This past weekend we were in Davenport, IA, with Casa de Oracion, and Moline, IL, with Templo Alabanza. We visited the Moline church in the morning, and the Davenport church in the evening. Each of these churches primarily speak Spanish, and for those of you who know us well, you know our Spanish language skills are weak (at best). Yet, after talking to the pastors of the churches, we decided that we would try and give Spanish sermons at each of the churches. Randy and I each composed something brief in English, then his friend Hugo translated the sermons for us (and also a prayer and introduction to the group for Elizabeth). A big thank you to him, it was no small task.
But translating the worship service into Spanish was only half the battle, because once it’s translated, we needed lots of help with our pronunciation. The days before Sunday we flooded our Spanish-speaking friends with phone calls and text messages as we sought help in pronunciation. As we prepared, the story of Pentecost took on new meaning for us, as we dropped hints to God about how convenient it would be if the Spirit came down and helped us out.
The Spirit of God was present, even though the gifting of tongues did not take place this morning. On Sunday, the Spirit was present in the members of the churches in their gracious responses towards us. Because of our lack of the gift of tongues, the more appropriate response to our services should have been from Acts 2.12-13, “All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’” But no one did.
At each church, members came up afterwards and gave us big bear hugs (Randy almost was crushed by the surprisingly strong hug of a 70+ year old man), and they were very, very welcoming and accepting. Once again, we were overwhelmed by hospitality as each church stuffed us full of food and sincere thanks for our ministry. Once again we were humbled by the graciousness of our hosts, and at a loss for how to express our thanks.
All this, in spite of the face that we had just spent previous 75 minutes butchering their mother tongue.
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