Five of Us Riding Nowhere: The Mission

Daniel and I arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico two days ago, looking forward to the mission opportunity God had provided us. Our missionary hosts, Ashley and Courtney, picked us up and drove us to the west coast of the island, to Mayagüez, where we would be stationed for the week.

The mission church we’re working with, Iglesia Luterana Principe de Paz, has a house for disaster relief and housing short-term missions teams. We gratefully fell into our beds that night.

The next day we were able to get a taste of missionary life by helping organize and sort books for the church library, revamp the bulletin filing system, and declutter some no longer needed items.

On Wednesdays the church hosts a meal followed by fellowship and Bible study. We were wholeheartedly welcomed and everyone graciously spoke English to us when they realized our Spanish wasn’t quite where it should be. During the Bible study, we both experienced the feeling of wanting desperately to be able to understand someone, but not being able to. It’s an experience that gives us both more empathy to people who speak English as their second language and how they must feel on a day-to-day basis in the States.

Today we were blessed to have a tour of Mayagüez with one of the local church workers. We also got to see how the team makes their twice-weekly radio show, Cafe con Fe, and got a shoutout on the radio. During today’s tour, William gave us not only a geographical tour, but also a rundown on the town’s history and, more importantly, a gastronomic tour!

Below are some pictures of the delicious foods we gorged ourselves on today. Surprisingly, the corn and coconut ice cream wasn’t our favorite even though it was amazing, but the pastelón de papas (sort of a potato-based lasagna) and beans won best food of the day for us. Everything has been terrific so far, and we’re looking forward to getting to know the people of Puerto Rico (and their food!) better.