Veracruz | Day 3
It has been quite a long, eventful, and fruitful day.
The day began with us meeting in a conference room of the hotel at 7AM where we began to fill up goodie bags for children that we may meet as we are out in the streets sharing the gospel.
We followed that up with a full group devotion, and finally breakfast.
Breakfast was an interesting mix of normal American style breakfast foods (oatmeal, hash browns, cereal, toast, fruit, etc.) as well as some Mexican options of beans, eggs, chicken, sausages, and plantains.
After our hearty meal we loaded up and went our separate ways.
I (Brad) went to Iglesia Bautista Antioquia (aka Antioch Baptist Church) (see picture below).
The Church had 2 gatherings with one that started at 11AM and one that started at 1PM. My translator, who also happens to be a pastor here in Mexico (Pastor Adrian) preached and played/sang a song on the guitar during the first service and I preached and played/sang a song on the guitar during the second service.
We were warmly welcomed and during the first service they did a special presentation of a sombrero and a handkerchief to me that was symbolic of their traditional dress for the men, and they presented fans to the women as symbolic of their traditional dress for the women (see picture below).
After service we had a large lunch which was tacos al pastor (or spit grilled pork) family style (big dishes of meat and toppings with tortillas on the side) in the same space that was our sanctuary (they are meeting in the lower level of their building as they are working on renovating the upper level where they normally gather) (see picture below).
It was great and I ate WAY too much.
After lunch we did an evangelistic training with the church there and after training we went for about 2 hours of street ministry where we went door-to-door in the neighborhood around the church sharing the gospel. My group (of 4) shared the gospel with about 4 or 5 people and saw 3 of them come to know Jesus.
Around 6PM we came back to the church for a little celebration (with music provided by Pastor Adrian and myself) and then testimony sharing about how things went that afternoon.
At 7:30PM we headed back to the hotel, met up with a bunch of others in the group and walked into the city for dinner at this place where they had a mariachi band. Pastor George had them playing all sorts of music for us while we ate. Including...happy birthday to Dale.
After dinner (which lasted until around 9:30 or 10) I left the restaurant with a number of the local folks who are with our group and we walked the city for a little while in search of ice cream and the perfect selfie spot, which we apparently found as many selfies were then taken (see the non-selfie pictures below).
At last, around 11PM, I made my way back to the hotel room where I currently write this post.
And for me (Brad), that was day 1!
I (Dale) went to Primera Iglesia Bautista Veracruz (aka First Baptist Church Veracruz).
This church also had two gatherings this morning, and Pastor George Tuthill and I both preached. After the worship gathering, the worship room was transformed into an eating space (see picture below).
After lunch, we made our way to a nearby city park where we shared the gospel for about 3 hours. After watching our team leader, Jose, and I share the gospel with several people using the Gospel Cube, and seeing 5 people come to Christ, other team members began to want to share the gospel (see picture below).
Overall it has been a great start to the week of ministry ahead of us. We still have Monday through Thursday left to share the gospel with Friday being a day to recuperate before heading back home to the States.