Pastor’s Wives

Here I am at the Pastor’s Wives meeting this morning. Hey no comments on the hair, as it was definitely a bad hair day. It was hot and humid and on such days my hair neither curls or straightens properly. Just kind of lays there, between me trying to brush it off my face so the sweat doesn’t drip into my eyes. Other than bad hair (which is the rule, not the exception more often than not here in Rio), I had a great day.

Although the meeting was on the other side of town, it only took about 25 minutes to get there. What a blessing. during the week, that same trip would have lasted about 1-2hours.

Although this was the semi-annual meeting for all the Baptist pastor’s wives of our city, with almost 400 churches, we had a very small attendance. That is par for the course. Here in this city everything is complicated to get to. In addition everyone has a million things happening. And there is no publicity or communication system set up. No pastor’s wife I spoke to knew about the meeting! I am not sure hope people know the meeting exist at all. Or maybe there hasn’t been much credibility given to the group. But those who came were very interested and the meeting was really good and well done.  Maybe like me, they mostly can’t face the thought of one more meeting.

The pastor’s wife to the left  spoke on forgiveness and was a definite WOW! I was inspired and impressed. She used Joseph, but in a new, creative and fresh way, sharing things I had never thought about. I was totally captivated and she spoke for an hour. Those who know my five minute attention span will be impressed. I can’t wait to have her speak to our group of women. It is so exciting to hear from such a woman of God.

I did the Bible study about hallowing God, making Christ holy and thus learning to live without fear, and with hope. If they liked it or not, I have no idea. They politely listened and laughed in the right places. But as hard as it is for me to say this, my task isn’t to make them like me or my message, but to hear God speaking to them. I am amazed sometimes to have people share what they learned from my message and it is not at all what I was really saying. But it’s kind of neat how God can translate our fumbling efforts to translate his message.

Although it was an all day meeting, I only stayed for the morning, leaving around 1PM, as it was the International Missions Lunch at our church, so I didn’t want to miss that. I hate to be a prima donna and go to meetings, do my thing and then leave before it’s over, but I really needed to do that today. After lunch at church, João socialized, but I had to go to his office and crash. He has a mattress and I threw in on the floor and closed my eyes and slept. It is exhausting for me to preach.

We got home around 4:30 or so and I’ve been finishing my Sunday School lesson tomorrow. I love this lesson about the JOY OF THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH.  My printer gave out on my – or at least the new cartridge I put in is not working, so I’ll have to get to church early to copy my lesson for the students. Also I’ll have to print out my sermon.

I will be preaching the same sermon at our church that I used this morning – with some modifications. I had an hour this morning (although I only used 40 min.), and at our church I like to keep it to 25 minutes or less. I will need to get to bed early, as tomorrow will be a long day. But no complaints from me. I love preaching and teaching and am grateful for every opportunity I have to exercise God’s gifts.