Vacation, Day 3

Second Sunday in Christmas
January , 2, 2011

The Lord be with you

Today started early enough for Kitty and I to see the sunrise from the porch from our apartment. It was beautiful. Then we were off to church. We ate breakfast on the way.

We attended Our Savior Lutheran in Corpus Christi. We picked this church because it was on the way to Isaiah and company’s home. To our surprise we were greeted by Rev. Bill Seaman. Bill is the Mission and Ministry Facilitator of the SED for the southern region, of which I am a part. I knew he was in Texas visiting his son, who is a pastor, but I didn’t know it was this church where his son served. Small world.

I would guess that the service was about 70% Latino. I am told the membership is maybe 80 or 85% Latino, which I find easy to believe. We went to the 10:30 AM service, which was in English. The early service is in Spanish, and I expect almost entirely Latino. At the service we attended there were about 24 children that came up for the Children’s message. They also confirmed a dozen or so children. They use what is the second setting in LSB, but from LW. They did not use hymnals, but a projection screen. I have expressed my feelings about how this excludes people who do not know the music in other posts. When the members of this congregation Pass the Peace, they really go all out. The sermon was based on the Gospel lesson from Luke about when Joseph and Mary “lost” Jesus on one of their trips to Jerusalem for the Passover. Pastor Seaman (the son) tied it in with the idea that sometimes people can feel like they have lost Jesus. We find him in Church (just like Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the Temple), where we find the Word and the Sacraments. The sanctuary was beautiful. It was a real blessing to gather with the believers of Our Savior, hear the word preached, and share the Lord’s Supper with them.

After church we continued on to Isaiah’s home. It is less than 15 minutes away from the church. Aside from Isaiah, Athena and the children, Jarn (one of Athena’s brothers) and he father were there. We brought in our Christmas presents and so everything got off to a grand start. For lunch/dinner we had some excellent monster burritos, which we are told are one of the things Corpus Christi does well. I have to agree. We also played a game of Monopoly, which I won. We left around 7:30 or 8:00 for the three hour drive back to our place. Next time we come we will plan better so we can spend more than a couple of days here and find a place MUCH closer.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

Jarn is in the back left, next to Athena, and Athena's father is by Isaiah.


William's new Nerf gun meets with his approval.

Athena and Isaiah open a present.

Ara outside trying out her 3-D chalk.

Kitty and Little Isaiah play a new game together.