Screen saver Face

Today is Sunday. Attending a local church in a foreign country where you do not speak the lingo can be really tiring. BUT, I found a way quite a few years ago, to go on "screen saver." We were living in the Southern Philippines and were attending a large church in the city of Cagayan de Oro City. It is very hot in southeast Asia and this church did not have air conditioning. Right across the alley from the church was a high brick wall that all the taxi, jeepney and other public transportation drivers used to urinate. In the Philippines, the toilet is called the "comfort room" and public toilets were non-existent at the time, so this wall was known as the "comfort wall." When the breeze was blowing just right the smell was interesting. But I digress. Anyway, like I said, it was very hot and miserable and I was having a very hard time staying awake. So I just figured out a way to sleep with my eyes open. That way the preacher looking my way would never know that I was actually nowhere within a hundred miles. You know about screen saver. It looks like there is something actually going on, but in reality the computer is just resting with its eyes open. Hey, it worked for me at the time and I was able to fire it up again this morning just in the nick of time; after my head had bobbed forward once or twice, but before I fell out of my chair onto the floor. I use it when I am about to slip into a coma.

Sunday nights we have an English service at the church that is translated into the local language and mid week we have English services in our home, so we really are hearing the Word in our own language. I almost always stay awake for the English services. The mid-week service is followed by a "pot luck." Everybody who is in town brings a dish and we have a time of prayers, fellowship, and testimonies in addition to a message. This is a wonderful time of refreshing and letting everybody else know what we have been up to all week. There are 12 of us here at the moment, working in several different areas and we don't always know what is happening with each other until English service time. We have people coming and going much of the time and without this time, it would be hard to keep up with everybody. There are 6 churches represented by our group at the moment. A young man coming soon will make it 7. Another lady coming in October will still keep it at 7 because we already have 2 from her church here with us for another month or so. These folks are "short-term" missionaries who are able to take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months and come over and help us here. They are really making a difference and the sacrifice they are making is very much appreciated. Some take their whole vacation and use it up over here. Many of them come with no church financial support, but are here on their own, having scrimped and saved to get enough money to come over and help. They stay till the money runs and then they have to go home and go back to work. Their labor of love is not in vain. The Lord knows their heart and He is making it possible for them to come over and help us. We thank them and we pray that there would be more like them. In the eyes of the world, it is a very thankless job, but in the eyes of God and in the hearts of the people they are helping to reach with the Gospel, it is a job that will one day reap great rewards.