We've got the initial version of the diocese website up and running - it's been a fun day getting it all sorted. It's only got the basic information there, but will grow once we get some replies toe-mails! Have a look: Iglesia Anglicana
We had a really good home group tonight, looking at three little verses from Johns gospel on the subject "Accept Jesus as Lord and Friend" - For the first verse, I asked if we could read the verses just before and after it. With having a little bit more to look at we had a really great discussion and everyone seemed to contribute at some point. This is a great improvement from the previous weeks, where the study has been very short and not gone into much depth. We touched on all sorts of cool bits which people had seemed to have had a bit of a misunderstanding about - so that's promising! Here's a some verses that I was thinking of part of during home group when we were talking about the difference between society, and Jesus' instruction to love one another as he loves us: If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. I might add a bit more on this tomorrow, but I'm tired now!
There's an unusual form of advertising here in Uruguay - the little trucks and bikes that drive round and round the same block every few minutes all day long! They play the same advert through a speaker on top of the vehicle as loud as they can manage - or it seems that way! So we can here it right from our flat on the 6thfloor. Today we were treated to the Pink Panther theme, with random Spanish voices that we couldn't make out as it was so distorted! I wonder what it will be next time, or if we've got that for the next month! But I still managed to get my Christmas shopping done today (earliest ever I guess!) which is cool!
Yesterday at church they lit the first advent candle on the wreath, and changed all the green coverings and decoration in the church to purple (apparently the liturgical colour for the season), and stopped singing songs containing Alleluia, or saying it in the liturgy of the service! Which is a bit different and seems strange -particularly avoiding songs containing Alleluia. But the idea behind it is that Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas. It's been quite interesting to see how different things are here - both in the culture of the country and the culture of the church. Gilberto encouraged people at the service to remember the real reason for Christmas and Advent, and not to let giving cards, giving presents and decorating distract from Jesus. Here they celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) and by the sounds of things they party all night.
Yesterday we went to a talk about the early church over at the Methodist church based on the book of Acts. It was really interesting, and surprisingly I managed to follow most of what the guy was saying (in Spanish) which was cool. Although I found the people asking questions difficult to understand, and when we were in smaller groups it was difficult. A very tiring day in all, but well worth it!
We just got back from Concordia, after spending a couple of days there to renew our visas and have a bit of a break. It's amazing how different it is to Salto, there seems so much more stuff in the supermarkets (mainly in the line of cheap booze) and it seems much busier. We also felt a lot less safe there than we do in Salto - but nothing happened. We stayed in a cheap (-ú10 for a double room with breakfast) but lovely hotel, and wandered around the sites there. At some point I'll probably add some photos of the castle we went to see, and the cathedral, which looks quite different to any other Catholic cathedrals I've seen.
This explains the gap in blog entries - we were without a power supply for our laptop for quite a long time since being in Salto - so we've been just about keeping up with e-mails using Gilberto's computer, and the internet cafe. But I've not got round to updating this - hopefully I'll be able to fill in a few of the major events, but things should get more interesting from now on!
Today we went to the 'double service' at Espíritu Santo, which is a service in Spanish, followed by a service in English. It was really helpful to be at both, and interesting to see the differences. We then went for lunch with the Carters. After lunch, Steve taught me how the guitar chords are done differently here. All the chords have different names as follows: C is DO, D is RE, E is MI, F is FA, G is SOL, A is LA, B is SI. For minor chords, sometimes lower case is used, and sometimes an 'm' is added. I'm starting to get used to it, but it's very tricky.
In the morning we went shopping at Montevideo Shopping - we found it this time with the map - it was much easier by foot. In the afternoon, we watched Bad Boys 2 at the cinema there. It was really empty and we thought we were going to be the only people in there, but another couple came in part way into the film. It was so different watching a film in such an empty cinema!
Today we went to Colonia (an old town opposite Buenos Aires) for the day. It was a really nice place to visit for a day, but there wouldn't have been much more to see if we'd been there much longer. The sea views were really nice.