This Sunday I went with the McCoys and Dr. Carl Birchard to a bush church, Milo
ng Church. A man named Isaiah had been asking Bill to come and preach for a while, he tried to say no, but Isaiah was persistant, so he agreed to come. He had been scheduled to speak prior to going on
furlough, but there wasn't a vechile available at the time, so he couldn't go. So today was the makeup date.
We left at 900am without really understanding why we were leaving so early, but once we got going we understood why. We picked up Isaiah about 10 minutes from here and then drove another 20 minutes or so to where we left the car. Then we hiked another 20 minutes or so up and do
wn hills, over streams, through gardens until we came to the church on top of a little hill. When we got there, the church was waiting for us. They were lined up on 2 sides singing a greeting song of thanks for coming, and gave us a lae of flowers to wear.
There are about 15 members of this church according to the circuit pastor, but ther
e were between 60-70 folks there this am, including kids. The church was nicely decorated with flowers. The church was like other bush churches, guys on one side and ladies and kids on the other. They had benches in the back where we got to side, again guys and girls. We were introduced and then sang some songs. After some of the church gave a litttle testimony, then Dr. Carl and I shared a little testimony. Following this Bill preached from Col 3.
One of the thing
s that I have started to get use to, is how they just stare at you, especially the kids. Throughout the service, if I scanned the crowd, I would always see at least 1 kid looking back at Marsha and I, or at Bill and Carl, but often it was a group of kids who were looking at us. Many so cute and if I would smile at them, the
y would often smile back, or hide in their moms chest. The generosity of the people is amazing. Compared to what I have in material things, they don't have much, but they are more that willing to share what they have. At the end of service, they had us remove some flowers from the front and underneath was a bunch of produce that they had grown in their gardens and wanted to share with us. Not only did they give it to us, they also carried it back to the car for us.
