Worship in Sabana Grande

The past few days I haven't been doing much. Monday was Independence Day here in Nicaragua, so Chacocente hasn't had school since last Friday. They start back tomorrow. I've had a little vacation from the Project... just enjoying my new family, new friends, new church. Sorry I haven't blogged, but I really didn't know what to talk about. I thought maybe you'd enjoy an overview on what Church is like here.

La Iglesia - El Buen Pastor is part of Nicaragua's Church of Christ Denomination (it has no relation to the USA Church of Christ - but in fact does have ties to our United Methodist Church). Its Pastor - Pablo Telléz (my host dad) is also the President of the Church of Christ Denomination of Nicaragua. There is another Pastor in the church, sort of like an associate - Hermano Pedro. He's about 30 years old, and preaches once or twice a week.
Church usually begins at 7:00 pm Monday through Wednesday, and Friday. Saturday is Youth Service. On Sundays morning church is usually at 8:30 or 9:00 (they never really start anything "on time") and evening church is at 5:00. However, the first Sunday of each month early church is at 5:00 AM. On Sundays the women of the church cook soup to raise money for the church. Janeth (my host mom) pretty much leads that. It is excellent soup, but like nothing I've ever had in the States.
El Buen Pastor is a more contemporary Evangelical Church - there are very traditional ones as well (I went to a traditional church service about a week or so ago). Church generally begins with gathering music. Pablo leads sometimes, and there are about 5 or so others that lead at other times. Some night's there is just guitar, other nights there is just voice, sometimes we have drums and piano as well. But whatever the case, the singing isn't done solely by the people up front! During the singing we'll have La Lectura (a reading). Someone from the Congregation (generally someone different every night) comes up to read the Bible reading and then pray. After which there is more singing. Then we'll have the offering. Someone else from the Congregation will come up and hold the offering basket, standing at the front of the church. Then while we sing joyously people parade up front to place their offerings in the plate, in front of the entire congregation. (This is very Old Testament - but totally awesome). After the song, the person holding the offering basket prays. Then we may sing some more. Or we'll have Especiales. We don't have Specials every service, but maybe two or three times in a week. People from the Congregation who so desire go up front and sing a song, whoever is on guitar just picks it up and starts playing. Sometimes the congregation sings along, and sometimes they just enjoy the music. But usually 3 or 5 or more people will go up and share. After which we may sing some more praises, or have the Message.
The message always begins with another Scripture reading. Pastor Pablo usually gives it, but Hermano Pedro does often as well... and a couple times we've had others give it. At times someone will give a testimony before the message. Then finally we'll end with prayer and song and benediction. Then everyone goes around the church and greets each other "¡Que Dios te bendiga!"

That's just an outline of the service, but experiencing it is something else. They don't have a screen or hymnals or songsheets to read the words to the songs. They all KNOW them. And they clap and sing strongly and move around. Whenever there's a point in the service where there's a technical difficulty, or a short break, or whatever, the congregation fills it with Hallelujahs, Amens, and Praise Gods (such things are also distributed quite effectively throughout the entire service). It is such an overwhelming feeling of warmth to worship with these people. One of the coolest things that is done often is the Singing of Psalms. They have music that goes to many of the Psalms, and they all just sing the words straight from the Bible like a Praise Chorus! It's so cool!
Something else they do is Celebrate people's birthdays... we've had 3 since last week. At the end of the service the Birthday person goes up front and we sing and sing various birthday/blessing songs while we all parade up front and hug them. Then we recite this special birthday blessing, which I don't know, with our hands outstretched. Pastor Pablo prays, and the Birthdayee has an opportunity to speak. He/she usually just talks for a minute or so... praising God and thanking people and the Church for the impact its had on his/her life.
I just think it's awesome that everyone has an opportunity to partcipate in worship. Whether with Specials, or Testimony, or Reading, or doing the Offering, or having a birthday. It's not up to a few select people or groups. It really is about the WHOLE church.
There is nothing uptight about Worship here. No certain time requirements to meet, no structure that must be followed, no offense when you sit in someone's spot, or anything like that. It's okay to get up in the middle because something comes up...

(for instance, last night... Yesterday was hot. It was really really hot. I did my laundry and hung it on the line to dry. Before Church it still wasn't completely dry, (i dont know why but church was at 5:00 last night... probably because of the Holiday). So, I decided to wait until after church to take care of it. While we were sitting in church it began to get really dark, earlier than usual, and it was very cool and windy outside. I knew it was going to rain, it felt like rain, it smelled like rain... and I wanted rain because it had been so hot! BUT all my clothes were on the line, and Pablo was just starting the message. I was sitting in the front row of the church. Well, I just got up, walked out the side door, and took all my clothes down. When I was about halfway done the rain started to drop... and by the time I was pulling my last shirt off the line I realized I had started just in time. I got under the porch roof and it just poured! I put my laundry in my room and walked back over to church and sat down... No one looked at me when I came in, no one asked me why I left.)

Another thing I love about this church is the Young People. They have a thriving group of around 20 or 25 Young People. Who are all pretty regular, and involved. They don't do Youth Group like in the States though. The Young people begin at about age 16 or 17 or so... and goes till about 30. (They have younger kids in the church, but they're still in Sunday School... which they have once or twice a week during Culto). Guillen, he's 20 as of yesterday, is the President. Every Saturday night they have service, led by themselves. It begins just the way the regular services do, with worship and offering, but instead of a message they break into small groups and study scripture. After studying it someone from each group shares what the group's thoughts are. I really enjoy it a lot, and Saturday night I spoke up in my Small Group and gave my thoughts on something... I only had to ask Isaac for help with 2 or 3 words... so it was good. LuzMarina said that everyone understood me! After the Bible Study we go back to the pews (girls on one side, boys on the other) and have a competition. First it begins with Guillen reading scripture and us racing to find where he's reading it from. The first person to find it stands up and reads aloud along with him. I can't participate in that one, because even with a Spanish Bible, I won't know where to find it... it takes me long enough to figure out exactly what he's talking about, and then after that to figure out where it would be... I can't do that yet. After this, they might give a passage and the first person to say the first word of it gets a point. There are various other games they do this way. They also do a memory verse part. How many memory verses can each team recite in 1 minute? and Bible Trivia Questions. I participate in these two because they let me say memory verses in English, and my Bible Trivia is pretty good. At the end of the Competition we add up the points, Boys versus Girls. The girls won on Saturday. So Youth Service is like a cross between Worship, Bible Study, and Youth Group... it's so much fun. When it's over a lot of us remain to hang out at Parsonage... actually the Young people do that every night after church. Some nights they might go get a 3 liter of Coke and Pico for all, and other nights they just sit around and talk. The regulars are Guillen, Rafael, Hermano Pedro, Karla, Marly, and Joel. Sometimes more stay, sometimes less.

This is probably the best description I can give worship here in words. But it doesn't amount to the emotion and warmth one experiences while participating in the loving community of worship at El Buen Pastor.