This past week, I spent the week in Rivas with 8 other of the girls. While we were there we helped out with a church in San Jorge. The people were so welcoming to us and treated us like friends immediately.
In order to get to this church, we walked about a mile. This was down a few different dirt roads and back near the woods. When we got to the church, it was at a home of one of the members. It was all outside and the only equipment they had was a speaker to use for worship.
There was no screen with the song lyrics on it, the people knew all the words by heart. Luckily, they LOVE Hillsong here so we were able to sing along in English. We sat in plastic chairs with no air conditioning and bugs swarming everywhere. You also had to watch out for the pigs who would randomly sprint in and out of the rows.
Seeing all this and how basic their church was but how dedicated they were to going and being in the presence of God made me question how different it was to the American way of church. I drive to church each Sunday and I am able to sit in comfortable chairs and air conditioning. There is always a worship band and typically some type of video presentation or show. I also get programs to tell me the exact order of the service.
I began to think how often would I go to church if it was like the one in San Jorge. Would I want to skip more often to avoid the heat or the gnats in my face?
I realized that going to church is so much more than the awesome worship band or the high tech video they made to show in the service. It is about being in God's presence and worshiping him with fellow believers and seekers. The people of the church are the body and I want to be a strong part of that not just lukewarm. The San Jorge church had such a strong community and spent almost everyday at the church. It inspired me to be more like them.
