We were delighted to find a wonderful new church home-away-from-home, SonRise Calvary. It is a small, very informal, very welcoming church body. The first ones we met were Tia, the preacher's wife, and her mother, Kathy, who greeted arrivals. Next we met 2 of the preacher's sons and another young man, formerly from Montana, who is the worship/song leader and plays the guitar. The worship starts with Donnie leading singing, 2 or 3 songs in English and then 2 songs in Spanish. I knew the songs just from the melody but was thankful to see the Spanish words being projected up front. The scripture reading is in both English and Spanish, and then the Spanish speaking people are dismissed to a separate room for the sermon in Spanish while the English speakers remain where they are. Pastor Chuck is a very good preacher, funny, Biblical, thought-provoking. No communion; don't know how they do that yet.
After worship, they serve a meal and everyone is invited to stay and fellowship. Amazing that they can feed everyone every week. Simple meal, but good. There were the children from the orphanage across the road and many who were in children's classes or the Spanish worship whom I had not seen before.
The church has a coffee house and is open every morning serving espresso, lattes and pastries. They have wi-fi (at least as long as the one son is in residence) and a small library of books. They also offer men's and women's Bible studies on weekday mornings, Wednesday night service and Friday night prayer. A lot going on for such a small church. They really stress faith in action (a familar message from back home at Lafayette!).
Don and I have been having communion at home on Sunday nights at the same time that our Life group back in St. Louis is having communion. We love to feel that spirit of unity.
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