Attending Church Services

Allright, time to finally get caught up. I forgot to mention my trip on Sunday morning to Maximo’s church. It is located in a very poor neighborhood in San Jose, but that does nothing to take away from the people’s passion. We arrived at 10 am and stood in the back of the open air church building. The first 30 minutes were spent greeting friends and fellow congregation members, as a Christian rock band played Spanish songs about the grace of God, and two sets of teenage girls performed dances on either side of the band. It was a very high tech operation, as there was a multimedia screen behind the band, flashing up the words to the song, as well as other religious pictures, and the whole band was hooked up to mikes and amps and the sound quality was very good. After the music, was the tithing going in order from children, women then men. Then the youth pastor made some brief remarks, and invited two women from the congregation onto the stage to share stories about how God had touched their lives. Finally the pastor came out and began his sermon, which Maximo translated for me. It was about the Apostle Paul and his grace in jail, turning a negative situation into a positive opportunity to spread the word of God and try and convert his prison guards, and other prisoners. All in all it was a very moving experience, despite my agnostic religious beliefs I enjoyed the service, and will probably attend another one before I leave.