Which Church Are We Going To?!

Rare and beautiful in this part of the world – two local congregations meeting together to worship God!

That’s what we did today, as two churches in Ixtapaluca met together.  Why so rare?

You have to think of Mexico City as a small country.  There may be quite a few churches in the whole "country", but compared to the population there are hardly any at all.  Then you have traffic, which separated people more than space would in a larger country.  Then on top of that you have people that can’t afford to drive or take public transportation more than absolutely necessary.  Suddenly, the distance from one small church to another small church is insurmountable.

So we have a dream.  What if there were a group of churches close enough that they could actually worship together once in a while?  What if they could share resources?  Help one another?

Days like this are a glimpse of that dream.  What an encouragement!

29 May 2011 – Joint Service… click for a bigger version of the photo
These photos (two stuck together), taken near the beginning of the service, show Rod welcoming visitors.  There was one after another after another… new people getting connected with believers here in Ixtapaluca.

Of course there wasn’t room for all of us in the room we’re renting, so we set up a tent in front of the community centre.  We’re kind of a nomadic church – Nathanael always asks,"Which church are we going to?" … not because we meet with different people every week, but because we meet with the same people in different places! 🙂

All went well, although when I was sitting at the keyboard in the front, all of a sudden my feet got sprayed.  I guess someone was watering the grass behind the tent.  Do things like that happen at your church?

There are still some local businesses right there, so one man was selling snacks and someone else was filling water jugs during the sermon.  That was a little noisy, but I still enjoyed the message on Mark 8 from our friend Samuel.

Afterwards, some great food!

Yes, a rare and beautiful thing.  And next time the two churches are together – we’ll be baptizing new believers!