September 20, 2016

In the beginning of May we settled on a church here in Masatepe. It is a funny thing but even in the midst of not understanding everything that is happening, I still feel at home there. It is like being comfortably uncomfortable.

We have visited several churches, and I must say that part of the decision was the volume of the worship service. Now before you think that “I’m too old”, let me just say that when I am sitting in the back of the church and my inner ear is vibrating, I think that is too loud.

We like what we see at Iglesia Cristo- El Shaddai! The pastor is training young people to preach in the church, the messages are Bible- based, the volume is manageable, the pastor comes along side in worship, and the church-goers are genuine. These people know what it is to not have things easy, but to walk faithfully with God!

Here are the lighter reasons why we have chosen to be a part of Iglesia Cristo:

• In the 85-90 heat, the ceiling fans are a wonderful addition and a man named David has honed in to our need for them.
• A 9 AM starting time really means that around 9:20 people will start coming in and church will likely get started by 9:30- we are adjusting! This is repeated at the 5 pm service.
• When the pastor introduced his wife to me, he followed it up with, “Isn’t she beautiful?” I love the Latino honesty!
• The pastor’s wife calls me “princess”.
• It takes 6 large speakers for the 30 of us to hear the service J
• The precious children come out at the end of the service and share the verse or music they learned in Sunday school- this is hilarious and precious!
• And finally, when they see us coming they double up the plastic chairs. While in some ways this is a little embarrassing, it would be more embarrassing to sit down and go crashing to the ground!

This week we celebrated our first communion time with them. Since we did not really know the customs of the church we were a little wary. We saw people go up to the front to take the elements, so we followed course. As we were in line I noticed that most people stayed up at the front and seemed to be forming a circle in the front of the church. I figured it was best to follow their lead.

Stephen, who is used to getting up front and preaching, was very uncomfortable in this situation. He was fearful that we might be making some kind of commitment that we were not aware we were making (this can happen when you understand about 50% of what is said), so he was kind of facing me with his body, with an intent, “let’s go sit down now?!” look. Of course that made we laugh. With tears in my eyes and trying to recover in this serious moment, we realized that we were all just taking communion together.

This past week we showed up for church and no one was there. Obviously not everything is coming through loud and clear, and it seems that every instance is still a learning experience!