Blue Skies

Day 35: Sunday at Fremont

August 5, 2008 on 8:23 pm | In On Tour |

On waking, I found that the temperature situation had not solved itself overnight. Even at 7:30 in the morning, the humidity was oppressive, and it was warm enough to discourage much movement. Prearranged volunteers were giving the morning off to the majority of the kitchen staff, and one of the cyclist’s parents had donated Dutch cheese and raisin bread for breakfast. Great stuff!

Celebration services were being held in two different churches in two different towns, both of which were 45 minutes to an hour by bus. The one was more of a traditional church, and the other was a newer plant that had a number of ex-prisoners that had come to Christ, if I recall correctly. They baptized two adults during the service there, which is really cool. I didn’t actually go to either, since they had asked for volunteers to stay and act as security at camp.

A number of others stayed behind, people who were not thrilled by the idea of hour long school bus rides in the heat and humidity. They ended up going across the street to a Lutheran church. There they were warmly welcomed and invited to join the congregation there in worship and communion. After connecting with them in this way, the church went out of their way to welcome tour cyclists. They opened up their air conditioned facilities to us, provided a continuous stream of snacks and drinks all day and into the evening, and let us use their wireless internet. Just incredible hospitality. Then they also offered to let us sleep inside for that night, in the nice cool air. A great number of those who had slept in tents the previous night migrated to the church, myself included.

The day itself was pretty uneventful for the rest. I had some good conversations, spent some time writing, some time relaxing. I didn’t have to drive any of the shuttles to town, which was nice since I’d been driving all week.