Church This Morning

Church in Honduras is so much different than church in the States.  Church does not start on time, dogs roam in and out of the building, children aren't always made to sit and be quiet, moms are nursing babies and not even trying to cover themselves.  That is on a normal Sunday.  Today, was anything but normal.

Our church is small.  There are not many men here, surely not enough for one man to lead singing, one to preach, one to lead communion and several to pass communion, one or two to pray.  After, the young boys are baptized, they are allowed to participate in these roles. 

This morning I noticed a man sitting on the front row that I had not ever seen before.   We are always glad for visitors and new members.  Denis led the first song and the man was clapping away.   That was ok.  We probably need livened up a bit.  After the first song, Denis stepped down from the pulpit and Michael,  the preacher's son, went up and began to lead the songs.  Our guest decided to really liven things up.  He began to shout that there was una gran problema (one big problem).  He said it was wrong for a child to be up there.  Denis was very near the man and tried to talk to him.  Michael did a fairly good job of continuing to lead the singing.  Of course, he, and everyone else, was trying to listen to what the man was saying.  More than once, the singing stopped completely.  But Michael would get us going again.  The man was not going to be quiet and Marc walked up to where he and Denis were sitting.

He told Marc this was wrong.  Marc said we are here to worship God and sing praises and you are being very disruptive.   The man said he was there to worship God, too and he could not do so with a child leading the singing.  In a nice way, Marc told him if he did not like it, he could leave.  Denis tried to explain, to no avail, that we thought it was important to instruct the young boys so they would know how when they were men.  All explanations were falling on deaf ears.

Denis asked Michael to stop leading the singing and asked Antonio to come start leading the singing.  I must admit, I did not understand the reasoning for asking one child to sit down and another to come start leading the singing. 

Evidently, the guest did not either.  He got up and stormed across the front of the church with his face as red as a beet.  He slammed his fist into the big heavy metal door and threw his jacket on the ground outside.  I was sitting behind four of our girls and trying to keep their attention focused on singing.  Oh, how I wished I would have had a camera to capture the look on Reina's face when the man slammed his fist into the door.   Then she began to move her hand as if to say, "ouch, that hurt."  I am sure it did.

With this guest gone, we sang another couple of songs, had communion, and then a sermon was preached as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  Just another great day in Honduras.

Terri