Sunday Jan 13
I had been out late the night before with my exchange friends and I had not heard from the girls I was going to church before I went to bed. So I left my phone on in hopes of being woken up by a call or text with a time to leave. I did wake up to a call but unfortunately it was one saying it was time to leave! So I got ready in a hurry and met Cat & Sheryll downstairs by the front door. At church the sermon was on Daniel 3, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace. Or for VeggieTale fans…Rack, Shack and Benny :) Two key thoughts that particularly stuck out to me during the sermon were: The 3 mens' deep faith and believers in bad times. I was impressed with the mens' conviction, they basically said, "Our God has the POWER to save us, no doubt about it. But we don't pretend to know his will." They know God is powerful but they admit that they aren't privy to his plans, overall or even for their own lives. Perhaps even more relevant is the reminder that God doesn't often save believers from the bad times, he finds us in the midst of it and stays with us. The church I've found here is great, good sense of community and really strong teaching. As with anywhere things are a little different. I have new songs to learn and I also have to restrain myself from standing as soon as the next song is announced. Apparently here you let the musicians begin and then get up all together when it's time to sing! Something to get used to.
Another thing to get used to is 2 services on every Sunday. Having multiple services isn't unusual but having different sermons at each is! So apparently you go to both since they're entirely different. I was so exhausted that I didn't do much of anything between the two services. I just took a nap. Then it was time for church again! The sermon was on Ruth, which I love particularly because my church back in Philly is also doing a series on it right now! The preacher took a really interesting look at it. He focused actually more on Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, than Ruth herself. Definitely not a way I've looked at the book before. The speaker noted that Naomi is never forgotten by God and that every chapter of the book holds a provision for her. She is very bitter of her circumstances, she's not happy with God but she never turns away from him. Instead when tragedy strikes her family in a foreign land she actually returns to the land of God's people. She doesn't try to run away. God just can't let go, he's preoccupied with Naomi. One important message near the closing was that none of us have enough wisdom to say "God doesn't know what he's doing". We might not understand his plan but we're not really in the position to question it!
After Church we were very hungry! Cat and Sheryll had invited me to have thai curry with them for dinner. I had never had curry before but I was willing to give it a try. We all helped cook it and I learned how to cut a pepper! Haha my horizons are expanding so rapidly! The curry was peanut butter-based and had peppers, broccoli, potatoes, peanuts and chicken served over rice. It was so tasty! I can't really handle spicy foods so Cat didn't put any additional spices in. She and Sheryll couldn't even taste it but I had to take a sip of water every other bite! Lol guess I'm a lightweight. My spicy food tolerance is a work in process.
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