The beginning of the end.

Where to begin? Today was wonderful, amazing, long, hard and so many more things all in one. We started the day by packing all of our luggage, the tools and other supplies into a van that headed right away back to Santo Domingo. The team, Steve and driver Manuel, 16 total, packed into the other van, a very tight fit. We first dropped off a few extras at pastor Duran's home then headed to the church. The building is more than twice the size of the buildings we have helped to build. Steve told us that they had started with a smaller building, built with the help of a team like ours. The congregation has been growing to over 200 members. They more then doubled the size of their building without any outside money. When we arrived, Sunday school was in progress, 7 classes all meeting at once in the sanctuary. Every class was learning bible verses, studying a lesson and singing songs all at once. Very different from our idea of Sunday school. We, of course, were ushered to the front of the church to sit behind the pulpit. Very uncomfortable, like being on display, but the honored guest seats. We soon discovered that four of the Dominican kids we had meet and played with this past week were there. We gave and received a large number of hugs and kisses. This was a big deal, the church is completely Haitian, the service is in Creole. They had come because we had invited them and they wanted to see us one more time before we left. As some members of the church setup for the service, we mostly watched as Sunday school finished. With everyone already in the sanctuary, the end of Sunday school seemed to flow into the start of the church service.

It is now after 11:00 pm here, we have to be at breakfast at 5:00 am and ready to leave the ministry center at 5:30. The rest of this post will have to wait until later.