One Body, One Spirit, One Lord

Day 3- Today was our first trip up the mountain to the village of Chadric. Compared to most of our comutes to church (an easy 15 min drive, 25 if you stop at Starbucks before) we had an hour drive up steep gravel roads and then a 30min hike just to get to their church. Once we arrived we were amazed by the most beautiful scenery from the mountain top. We were ushered in to sit in the front rows of their chuch to listen to the pastor who was maybe 25. We had Ronald and Frankie translating to our two groups. The sermon was about the book of Job and how to not ever give up hope despite your circumstances. Soon after, they began singing and even though we could not understand the words, the spirit of the Lord was there. The day before our trip Cheryl posted Isaiah 55:12 on our email and this verse really spoke strongly to me during the worship time. The verse reads: You will go out in joy, be lead forth in peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song before you and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands. I just closed my eyes and listened to everyone singing and envisioned the beautiful tune carrying out into the moutains and trees. It was a great moment I will never forget. The people are very excited for us to come back and work with them the next few days. After hiking back up to the trucks we were invited in to Bernard's house for lunch. He is the leader of the Thousand Hills Coffee company who is responsible for this new coffee project that is taking place in the village. It was encouraging to hear the goals of this project. They hope to be able to provide each family 100 coffee plants which in turn will produce 400lbs of coffee per year, for 40 years. This is an exciting venture that we can't wait to take part in. It has been raining for the past 7 hours so our hike in the mountain tomorrow should be muddy!!!! Stay tuned for our adventures tomorrow. ~Rachel