3.7.07

Wednesday 3/7
(12:30am)

Whew…long day! I slept terribly last night with alternating back and abdominal pain. I woke up to a torrential downpour and a nasty set of diarrhea episodes. The highlight of the day’s commencement was the French crepe and jam breakfast. The upset stomach continued until after I ate so I loaded a water bottle with dehydration salts and took some Immodium.

Our van was again on time (Hooray, Kowah!) and we started our morning session right at 10:00am. Dr. Allison opened the meeting with a terrific explanation of the multiple indexes in the hymnal, after which we taught them three hymns set to “Finlandia” – “Be Still My Soul,” “We Rest on Thee,” and family-themed song. I then got through most of Chapter 5, covering the Session.

After a break, I had Dr. Allison walk the class through how he moderates a Session and Committee meeting. After about 15 minutes of questions, I returned to the podium. However, I had been teaching only 5 minutes when I had to quickly hand the mike off and rush to the bathroom, for which I had to wait because it was locked. That “item of business” being finished, I concluded Chapter 5 and took questions.

Still feeling weak, hot and tired, I joined our men for lunch, but chose rice over the suspicious-smelling fish dish. I got a 30 minute nap before we headed back.

Back at the church, I zipped through Chapters 6-8 with constant opportunity for questions and no more stomach episodes. During this session, George finalized some plans for leasing a building on the main road as a Christian Bookstore.

Though our supper was ready when we got back “home,” we decided to wait until after the crusade to eat. We arrived at the Telecom Park around 6:30pm and Dr. Allison preached a powerful message from Luke 7 – it’s amazing how the devil tries to silence the Gospel. Dr. Allison was sick to his stomach and half-way through the message, the speaker-system’s dedicated generator died and was never restarted successfully. Finally, after Dr. Allison had resorted to 15 minutes of hoarse yelling, someone got the microphone system hooked up to the generator for the lights and for the last point.

Dr. Allison gave an invitation and I was able to speak with Forkpa, one of the teenagers who was to be baptized – I think we had a very profitable talk.

Some of the men returned with us for dinner and conversation. After they left, I was whupped – still am, so sweet dreams…