Praise Rises From The Dirt

(no photo, sorry) We attend a ‘Grupo de Hogar’ (home gp) about ½ mile from our little house. Down here in the Village, a ‘Home Group’ has quite the different angle. This Gpo de Hogar is hosted by Deamecio and Albina in their house. The 9 saints meet in a room inside a cinder-block building, with dirt floors and a ‘poured concrete’ roof. The one light in the room, way up on the bookshelf is supplied by an extension cord from the front lightbox at the street, barely enough to be able to read a Bible. Kids and dogs and chickens are making noise outside the open door, and the neighbors are playing their Norteño music extra-loud (? attempt to irritate the meeting?). We sit on 2x6 planks placed on concrete block for benches. We sing some songs ‘acapella’, led by sister Anna. Deamecio then opened the Word to Acts 1, and shares how the Lord spoke to him this week about the disciples praying before they do anything, so they would be in step with God… and we should do the same in all things. We gather in a circle and lift petitions to the Lord for two sisters with bad respiratory conditions, the pastors in the Village, a youth really stuck in the music of Madonna (yeah, she’s big in Mexico) but recently come to Christ, and… a dozen other life-issues. Voices are heard as Praise rises from the Dirt floor of this gathering. The Presence of the Lord is palpable in our gathering, just like He promised. Before we leave, everyone greets everybody else with a ‘holy kiss’ (right cheek to right cheek, a Mexican traditional greeting). Back to our houses before the coming rain begins.