“Man of Sorrows!” what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
“Full atonement!” can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die;
“It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in Heav’n exalted high.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew His song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

- Philip Paul Bliss

We sing this song on Sundays and I’ve rediscovered my love for this simplest of hymns. It’s full of Adoration, something I often struggle with, and puts my focus on God and his amazing strength.

My Jesus, my Savior
Lord there is none like you.
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of your mighty love.

My comfort, my shelter,
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship you.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing.
Power and majesty, Praise to our King.
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of your name.

I sing for joy at the work of your hands,
Forever I’ll love you forever I’ll stand.
Nothing compares to the promises I have in you.

Our church meets the first and third Sunday of every month under a huge tree. There’s about 40 people in total, a healthy mix of Gringos and Nicas, recovering addicts and families, men and women, adults and children. The musical worship is pretty lively, involving a lot of offbeat clapping and shouting by our worship leader, Osiris. Today, we even had a little rap session during the last song.

Today, it felt like I was part of the community instead of just a visitor. This is happening a lot more lately. Life here is turning into our normal. It’s normal to have clothes stiff from the clothesline. It’s normal to drink grama out of a plastic bag. It’s normal to leave leftovers on our porch step for the dogs. It’s normal to walk most places. It’s normal to buy our vegetables and fruit in the market. It’s normal to have roommates.

I’m happy for normal. I’m happy not to feel overwhelmed, and to feel like God has given us direction here. We’re starting to develop classes and curriculum for small groups, and implementing everything we’ve learned at Brookhills. I can feel Christ changing us, and it is good.

Savior King (with Spanish lyrics), by Hillsong

Our church recently launched a new website that is much simpler and easier to navigate than the old one. You know we love a website that looks good and functions accurately. One of our favorite features is the “This Week” button on the front page. The page is faithfully updated each week with the sermon topic, verses, resources and worship music. We’ve started logging on each week to see what will be taught and if possible purchasing the music on iTunes.

So tonight, miles upon miles away from our home church, we are listening to the same worship music reading the scripture and preparing our hearts for the message we’ll hear via podcast tomorrow.