Evening Church Service - Tuesday, March 29

After supper on Tuesday, we went to a church service up in the mountains.  It was supposed to be a 45 minute drive, but it ended up taking us close to 2 hours to get there because traffic was so bad.  One car even drove half on the median, and everyone was honking.  They use honking to change lanes, tell someone to stop, and to merge.  There are no speed limits, rare stop signs, and we've only seen one traffic light.  While we were in traffic, random guys would stand in the middle of the road and try to sell us food.

When we got through the traffic, it was an extremely rough drive up the mountain.  On the way, we drove past a cemetery, where families without a lot of money would bury the deceased.  It was dead quiet (no pun intended) and pitch black until we got to the church.  Suddenly, we got to a building with light streaming out of the windows and worship music blasting.  It was a beacon of God's love in a hopeless community.  It was surreal walking in with everyone clapping and singing with their whole heart.  Pastor Victor greeted us, and so did a lot of the congregation.  After worship, Pastor Victor, who was also the interpreter, invited us to the front and we all introduced ourselves.  We sang our Spanish songs for them, and they joined in on the second song, "Come Now is the Time To Worship".  This was really cool, and made the song seem so much more powerful.  

Next, Pastor Jeremy spoke, and Pastor Victor interpreted for him.  His sermon was about Jacob's dream, and the promises God has for us.  Pastor Victor did a good job of expressing the emotion that Pastor Jeremy used, and even acted a few things out with him.  Once Pastor Jeremy was done speaking, Pastor Victor quizzed the congregation on what the sermon had been about.  Afterwards, the whole congregation prayed for us in unison.  This was my favourite part.  It was cool to know that even though they were speaking a different language, they were praying to the same God as we do.  We also prayed for them and encouraged them to spread light to the rest of the community.  We got to meet the family who the guys are building the house for.  We also met a lot of the other people in the congregation, who greeted us with open arms.  We were all very blessed by the congregation and their genuine love for God.  Overall, it was an amazing experience.  

Kayla