The absence of an internet connection in the apartment made blogging impossible over the weekend, so this update has to cover a few days of activities.
Attendance at the combined worship service on Sunday was excellent—I do not know the exact number but it was probably near 1000. On Sunday Jan and I accompanied Erik Tryggestad to the airport to bid him goodbye and to thank him for his excellent coverage of Seminario Baxter as well as the stories of numerous Baxter graduates and workers from various parts of Latin America. His blogs about his experiences at Baxter can be read on the website of the Christian Chronicle.
Sunday night, at the request of brother Rigoberto Vargas, I spoke on the national television program of the churches of Christ. That will be a special memory of this trip. Many church members and those who are not members of the church watch the program weekly, which uses a call-in format for prayer requests. The Baxter employees, along with Howard and Jane, expressed their appreciation for my words and teaching on Monday. The television program is broadcast on a secular station—our program is one of only two religious programs on the station and the only one that is done live.
One of the highlights of spending time on campus during seminario was the opportunity to become better acquainted with Roberto Miranda. I had met Roberto in Columbia a few years ago, but we were able to connect and share much more information during the few days of seminario. Roberto is doing a great work in leadership development among churches of Christ in many areas of Latin America, and also among Hispanic churches in the U.S. We especially enjoyed breakfast yesterday with Roberto before his return to the U.S. We look forward to future possibilities of working with him in strengthening church leaders.
Yesterday we devoted to taking pictures of Baxter employees and hearing more of their stories in preparation for the new webpage I plan to post this week. I will try to mention it in a blog when it is up and available. It is always amazing to me how much time one can spend in developing a single web page, but while I am on campus at Baxter I have the advantage of having immediate access to information needed.