I loved Puerto Rico when I was on tour there many years ago - not with Dad that time. Then we also enjoyed our time in Puerto Rico with John and Jennie. We got to know Jennie's family and enjoyed her mother's fantabulous cooking! Attended their church and just enjoyed the whole time there.
Then after we retired, in 2005, again Jean Burch asked if we would go together and do a three weeks tour in Puerto Rico. So we gladly accepted. That was a wonderful thrtee weeks. It is a little bit like being in Africa to be in PR - a different culture, a very friendly, outgoing people.... and we found they love old people just like the Africans do! This time they did not put us in hotels but had us stay with local people and that was also most enjoyable. Someone always drove us around which we did not mind a bit. Things are not super organized like they are here in the States, and that was fine with us - we just went with the flow. We found that for the most part the pastors and many of the people in the churches spoke English very well so we had no trouble with language. One day they took us for an all day picnic - high in the mountains - with all young people and we spoke to them.
We loved the music in the churches in Puerto Rico - choirs and all kinds of instruments. We went to one big evening celebration in a church where one of the pastors knew how to blow the shofar and it was beautiful. There are lots of young people, as well as families and older people in the churches and we ministered to all of them.
The Puerto Rican people wanted us to see their beautiful island and they took us on all kinds of sight seeing trips. One family took us to beautiful underground caves where you go by a little open train, a real tourist operation and there were flocks of people there. We were also taken to the beach. One day one of the pastors and his interpreter took us to the region of Five Lakes - I think about in the middle of the island. That was quite an experience. The roads were mountainous and very windy, we started early in the day and drove right up to the lakes. We went out on a boat there and enjoyed all the great scenery. Then we drove back down to the seacoast again, and there our host took us to a modern restaurant, located in a kind of mall. The sea is everywhere and we enjoyed that very much.
That was the year of our fiftieth wedding anniversary and somehow they had gotten word about that. So they planned a wedding reception and re-enactment of our wedding for us. We were just told to dress up and come to the service - we would not have to speak. And what was our surprise when we arrived but to see the whole church decorated for our wedding. They found a little old man in the congregation who served as my father to walk me down the aisle. Dad stood up front along with the pastor who did the ceremony. They had flowers for me. It was quite an occasion. Then we went out to another building and they had the reception set up out there. There were gifts for us and also a huge decorated cake - with fifty years written on it! It was just such a fun party and everyone seemed to enjoy it!
We found the Puerto Rican Alliance churches very organized and good pastors as well as wonderful music teams - the churches were FULL of young people also. Because part of our family was Puerto Rican, it was even more meaningful for us. We were thanful God gave us this special opportunity to get to know this beautiful island.
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