The Universal Language Of Worship

So Tuesday night I got no sleep. None. This is not an exaggeration, I literally roller all night long. And yet for some reason, I was a little tired, but I didn't do too bad at all. Maybe it was because that morning at 6:00 I got to the coldest shower I've ever had. It was freezing, it was mucky, it was smelly, but t was one of the best showers I ever had (I had not showered since Saturday before we left, they have a water shortage in Juarez so we were limited to one to two showers and this was number one).

Why was I up so early in the Mexican morning taking a shower? It was church service day! The one day we all had to dress up somewhat respectable and worship God with the good people of Juarez in our Comedor (thanks Shawn) we've been eating in. Worship in Mexico is not dependent on Sunday morning, they have it any time they can on a regular basis, Thursday nights, Monday afternoon, or in our case, Wednesday morning. Sorry, but I haven't gotten any pictures of this.

Because I was with a detail of people that cooked (I'll get to that), we had to be there at 8:30, an hour and a half before everyone else, which also meant we skipped devotions. But that was okay, God and I had a little talk anyway. At 8:30, the comedor was easily half-full. Tell me this, when was the last time someone showed up for church an hour early just because, not for a committee meeting or to stack chairs or something, but showed up early just to show up early? At 9:30, Jenni (the woman who runs the place) got up and spoke for half an hour. I have no idea what she said outside of "Christ" and "Glory to God", but people listened for a half-hour with no problem at all. She was also fluent in English (thank God) so I was able to talk to her a little after.

At 10:00 everyone else showed up and we started our time of singing, praising and corporate worship (the time we designate as "worship" for some reason in our church bulletins). Here we are in Mexico, we don't know the language, there are no overhead screens to tell us the words, it's being led by one guy on an out of tune guitar with another guy on a Casio (Radio Shack) keyboard on the oldest sound system still working in North America, and still everyone, including our guys(!!) sang for the entire time, clapped, praised God for an hour solid, no breaks to sit down every ten minutes or whatever! I actually spent time with the little Mexican kids during it and I remember seeing one gentleman at the front, he seemed mentally challenged, having troubles with some actions, etc., but when it was time to raise our hands, he was completely focused on God. There's a lesson there...

At 11:00 was an hour of preaching time (again, when does that happen in our churches). We took up a bit of that time as we were introduced and told a little about ourselves plus the offering. Then we had a sermon in English by a Youthworks staff (the normal preacher was gone) and translated to Spanish by another Youthworks staff member. At 12:00, Jenni came up again and spoke, this time to tell people they did not give enough in the offering and they had to try harder (again, what church in America would dare say that?!). She was right though. There was only $7 in the offering, and almost all of that was from us.

We finished the service with a massive time of lunch together (the reason for the cooks). Good authentic Mexican food! We served the kids first, then the adults, then we ate while a few of us handed out food for people so they would have some food this week. It was amazing to see a church doing so much for the community. Km and I had a little talk about it, I kept feeling like our church didn't do this much, but she mentioned we did, but it was so much more behind the scenes, giving money instead of food and time. Good point.

After all this we went shopping at the Centro or "downtown". Here Juarez was much more advanced than we thought it would be. At the center of town were fountains and the most precious commodity of all, grass and trees (you can see them in the back of the picture). They were all fenced off and you were not allowed to touch them. Stephen, Shawn, Mandy and I went walking around, pet some baby bunnies, found out there was no silver anywhere for my wife, and did all the fun stuff like that.

Then we hit the second lesson in worship. This building is a Catholic church downtown right next to the first mission built in the country of Mexico. However, there are a few rules in this church. It is primarily for prayer. There is no talking allowed, period. You go in, you kneel silently, pray silently, light a candle if you wish silently, and you depart silently. All the time that you are silent there are ornate works of art all around you, stained glass, statues, and other pieces that show God's glory. It was quite a contrast to the morning. This too was worship, but instead of jumping up and down, it was introspective. Rather than doing what you can on a shoestring budget, everything here was huge and done to the absolute best of your ability for God. Another area we have no pictures from (we weren't allowed) but that's more than ok. Our discussion this night in our church time was quite long about worship and the time of "worship with a Youthworks guitar player" became "Worshipping God with all that we've got while a Youthworks guy played." Big difference.

But, in the midst of an amazing day, we had one problem. Mike Snyder, one of our wonderful chaperones, played basketball during free time and went up for a rebound, but came down on the curb. Rolled his ankle nicely and caused a lot of swelling. So, we took him to the hospital, although this time I didn't go with him (I think he was old enough to handle his own medical insurance stuff) and Matt Simmonds went with him. Running tally now at 3 (2 from us) trips to the hospital in El Paso. He even got the same doctor as Zak. Small world.

So how do you think a person's view of worship changes after a day like that?

T