Day 5. Half way into the stay of Pastor Sergio and Erin.
This morning began with Sergio meeting our women's Coffee Break group. Here is Pastor Sergio meeting Sharon, the one in charge this day.
He then sat down and began to talk with some of the women in the group who were enjoying their morning coffee.
Soon the whole group had gathered round and Sergio shared a bit more of his heart with these women. There is a women's group that meets in Gamaliel church too, so it was nice for Sergio to see how this group functioned and to bring greetings from the women in Gamaliel church.
After this it was off to Redeemer Christian High School to speak at their chapel and tour the school.
There was a bit of time before we were to begin, so Sergio quietly took in the sights. Here he is looking at past graduates of the school.
Fayth, on the left, had just come back from Peru this past March with her youth group from Kemptville. She greeted Erin. Harold, in the background, has been to Peru with us in the past as well.
We set up Chapel in the cafeteria for this talk because the gym, the regular spot, was occupied with a play set at the moment. My son helped set things up, but he was absolutely convinced everyone would not fit.
Oh ye of little faith (no Fayth) my son. We fit with room to spare.
Erin began with a short video she had quickly created for the group. She just seems to whip these things up from nowhere, and fast. Comes with the territory I guess.
After the video she did a short quiz game. She asked about different facts of Peru and gave out candy and bracelets to those who guessed correctly. One of the questions was how old was Pastor Ron. The answers weren't too flattering, but I was expecting that.
Another question was how old people thought Sergio was. Someone yelled out 25, and Sergio really liked that. He is actually 48.
After this fun time, Sergio did a wonderful job of talking to the group about their calling in life and to make God the first in all their decision making. The group was listening....mostly..... : )
Sergio wanted a picture with the group. I was happy to oblige.
After his talk, some students who knew Spanish came and talked to Sergio. That was nice, and Sergio loved it. He wasn't expecting this.
For lunch, on the cafeteria menu, was PIZZA again. Sergio is going to get his fill of Pizza this week. We each had two pieces of pizza, and I got a bonus third piece because Ben didn't want to finish his home made piece. Delicious.
Fayth came over to talk with Sergio for a bit. She looked puzzled about something in this picture. I must have said something to her that ticked her off (I can't imagine doing something like that though..... : ) )
Look what she did to me. It looks more painful than it really was......I think she washed her hands after touching my nose....
Here she is looking so innocent.....yeah, right!!
A small group formed to talk with Sergio, Erin and myself. Erin couldn't help notice they were all girls and snapped this shot of me with my groupies.....The tall girl on the left, back row, she thought I was in the 60's....what's with THAT!
Again, Sergio wanted a picture of this group, and ERIN was more than happy to oblige.
Erin asked for a weird picture and several in the group, including me, were more than happy to oblige.
Soon it was time for the school tour. Javier, one who spoke good Spanish (from Spain), would be Sergio's tour guide. Erin sat back and rested her voice, except for the times when Javier would pronounce Spanish words that originated from Spain, not Peru. Erin found that funny.
I couldn't get over how fast Javier spoke, but Sergio didn't seem to mind. He was enjoying having a student show him around speaking in his native tongue.
We began in the gym, where the play will soon take place.
Here are Javier and Sergio laughing and joking together.
In the shop area, we made Sergio wear a hard hat. He took it all in stride.
Sergio liked the library. He wondered where all the books came from.
He loved the bird book.
At the end of the tour he was given an RCHS shirt. A nice touch. Here he is with Marie, the promoter of RCHS. Thanks Javier, and Marie, for taking the time to show Sergio around. He loved the tour and came away with much to think about in regards to his own school. Similar things from when he visited CCS on Monday, but being reinforced through the eyes of another school.
It was amazing to see the tall totem poles. Sergio was impressed and asked all kinds of questions about where these came from, etc.
We toured the Canadian history section. Nick was a great tour guide. I learned all kinds of tidbits about Canada as we walked through the exhibits.
When we entered the exhibits, something comical happened. Sergio pointed up to the sky. He was puzzled by the fact that he had just come inside and while driving in the van he knew it was raining and misty outside but it wasn't raining outside where he was now. How could that be?
Then he realized that he was actually inside. He started to laugh......It did look real, if you didn't know what was going on.
This menu sign caused a 5 minute discussion on the use of the word menu and how it has several different meanings, depending on which culture you are using it in. I didn't get all the nuances of things, but Nick and Erin and Sergio were engrossed in the discussion for a long time.
We took a bit of time to sit in this church that had been placed as an exhibit. Sergio wanted to know our thoughts on abortion and homosexuality as a church in Canada. We spent some time explaining to him the stances of things in Canada and how the church struggles with those things. I felt Sergio was testing us to see how true the church was being to God in Canada. A good thing. He came away from this comforted that our church follows biblical principles on those two issues, but knowing now that not all denominations do.
You never know when Erin is going to come up with some crazy thing to do. Here she decided to mimic this person's pose......quite funny...
She then challenged me to do the same thing. Hey, why not!
Apparently Sergio has never seen a ski-do before, so I snapped a picture of this one for him.
After our tour of Canadian history, we took a bit of time to go through the children's museum. Erin was like a kid in a candy shop. The first thing she found were costumes that you could wear. She got Sergio to pose as a King without a Kingdom. He was having a hoot with this.
Not surprising, Erin picked the court Jester......
Here is Sergio drinking in all the exhibit details, while Erin plays with building blocks.....that's about right.....
Nick got to drive Erin and Sergio in the taxi.....well, not really, but it made for a nice picture.
Before we left the museum we went to the gift shop. We discovered that they sold books on Ottawa, in Spanish. Well, we couldn't resist, so we purchased a book for Sergio to take back with him to show his family and church.
We posed for one last picture before leaving.
On our way home we drove through China town. Here is the gate that sits at the entrance to Chinatown. It's pretty new from what I understand.....
After a brief stint at Nick's we headed over to my house for dinner. Here is Sarah greeting Sergio.
We gave Sergio a tour of our home. Here is Joycegina showing a picture of her family.
Katrina wanted to show Sergio her room all by herself. She was quite proud of it. I was quiet happy to see that she had cleaned it up for this visit. Sergio should come over more often.
Sergio really liked Katrina's gold fish.
Chris showed off his maple laughs room....or was that maple leafs....hmmm.. : )
Erin discovered our reclining couches in the family room.
We let Sergio try them out as well. It was funny to watch him smile and relax in the couch. He didn't quite know what to do as the chair reclined, but eventually he settled right in.
I went out to cook some hamburgers. Sergio came out to watch and he asked questions about how the BBQ was powered, etc. When we came inside, he eventually asked how the heating system worked, so I showed him our gas furnace and explained how things worked. He just keeps soaking things up.
Katrina came outside and eventually took out her skipping toy. She showed Sergio how good she was at it.
As only Erin can do, she convinced Sergio to give it a try. At first he couldn't get the ring around his shoe, so he had to take off his shoe to get it on.
He tried to make it work at first, but things didn't go so well. He laughed and laughed, and after a couple of tries he got better.
Erin gave it a try too. She was pretty good.
We sat down for supper and Sergio opened the meal with prayer. I like it when he prays......and then it was time to dig in. Sergio hasn't had hamburgers too often in his life, especially with the bun. He liked it. We also had potato salad with mashed potatoes. Apparently Erin has never had this sort of potato salad before. You learn something new every day....
After dinner it was time for a group shot with Sergio.....
.....and then it was gift time. Now you will remember in my earlier blog I commented on the fact that I figured we'd be getting something from Erin and Sergio when they came over for dinner. I was soooo excited....but, as usual, Erin has surprises up her sleeve. Sergio began by giving me a leather bible cover.
We also received pillow covers hand made by the women in the church.
A final surprise was a wonderfully soft blanket from Peru made from Alpaca wool. I have it over my shoulders right now as I'm typing this. It's soft, warm, and too feminine for me Joycegina says. I know why she's saying that....she wants the blanket all to herself.....NOT going to happen. : )
Katrina didn't want to give up the blanket, so I had to chase her down and tickle it away from her.
Then my daughter did something really cool. Katrina gave away one of her stuffed animals for Sergio's daughter.
Sergio was very thankful for it. Nice job Katrina. Very kind of you. I'm proud of you.
Time just flew by and before we knew it, we had to leave again. We were off to House Call Ministries that goes on at Calvin church every other Wednesday. Annette and Yvonne head this ministry up at the moment, and I was surprised to see Ben there too (Annette's son). We took some time to pray together before heading out.
Now, I should tell you that I think this ministry is really cool. What Annette and Yvonne do quietly within our church is wonderful. Their ministry of healing has blessed many people, albeit quietly and without much fan fair.
You also need to know that we kept on praying and focusing on God as we drove to Louise's home on the East end of the city. I know that God was with us, and that the GPS was guiding us to our destination, but I did have to direct Annette a couple of times in ensure that we arrived where we wanted to arrive, and not in Quebec..... (Sorry Annette, I couldn't resist).
Eventually we arrived at Doug and Louise's home. We had a wonderful visit there. I won't get into the details of what we prayed for. That will be something I'll leave to Louise to share at some point, but I will tell you that we had church this evening. It was wonderful to hear Doug and Louise share their lives with us. It was great to hear Pastor Sergio share words of wisdom from the Bible with us. It was exhilarating to be able to pray as a group for Louise specifically, and then Doug and Louise as a couple.
I commented to them that I continue to see the blessing of Pastor Sergio being in our midst. That came near the end of our time together, but it was appropriate to our discussion of unity and passion of faith and love of God from the depth of our hearts. I was encouraged to hear how Louise was impacted by a brief discussion with Sergio on Monday night and how Annette's children have been impacted too. I know it's not Sergio that is to receive any glory or credit for this, but I do know that he is a humble servant of God and that humility is infectious.
Before we knew it, it was time to leave. It was good to be together and I hope this sort of thing will continue to happen amongst the members of Calvin church.
We drove home and talked about different issues and people within the Calvin community. I dropped off Sergio and Erin and have now let you in on what happened this 5th day of Sergio and Erin's visit.
Tomorrow begins in 5.5 hours, so it's time to say good-bye. Another busy day tomorrow...another day of discovery and reflection for Sergio but also for all of us, hopefully.
Until tomorrow then.......
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