The church where the vision seminar was held on Sunday morning. We had been planning on doing it the night before but the pastor was busy all evening putting back together the bridge you see that was destroyed by recent heavy rains.
Here's a close-up of the church. We had participants from three different denominations but segregated the small groups by gender due to the hosting pastor's preference. Gender and faith issues have been coming up a lot recently. I won't get into a lot here, but I will just note that women preach in this Pentecostal church, although men and women sit on different sides of the aisle -- or different sides of the circle, with the set-up we use in our trainings -- and all women have to wear skirts (I have now added one to my travel list, I had to borrow one this visit).In several Brethren churches I have been to here women are not permitted to preach or teach adult men and they often wear head coverings. However they do sit mixed together with the men!
Ah, an idyllic scene. While I've grown accustomed to chickens entering buildings where we were doing trainings, on this day one of these cows tried to come in the front door! Thankfully one of the participants got up and shooed her away.
Here's most of the group that came to the seminar. In addition to talking about what is involved in starting a CHE program we discussed "The Great Commandment and the Great Commission," or God's plan for us to love God with all our being and love our neighbor. I also gave a lesson on relief vs. development.
Yum! They invited me to stay for lunch afterwards: chicken with pasta -- in the big bowl -- and a funky side dish from Misiones, flour mixed with grease (I swear those are the two ingredients I remember! I'll update this when I can think of the name)
