Out go the lights...

Santa Elena, 20 de Octubre had their one year anniversary of being a Lutheran congregation on 28 of November. They literally had 24 hours straight of activities planned to celebrate... people from Aurora 8 de Octubre came to celebrate with them, walking into the community through 4 kilometers of mud after riding in the back of pickups to get to the road into the community... Aurora members brought in sound equipment and someone from yet another community even carried in a harp.

As the daylight ended and those gathered waited for the service to begin, someone thought to amplify the harp... as the man plucked the strings a younger boy thumped the base of the harp... amplified it sounded like a heartbeat, and could be heard from anywhere in the community... as if the heart of their lives was the church... and even more so the word of God.

The service began at 10pm... by then the days activities coupled with the warm temperature and the multitude of bodies in the wood plank church had already lulled many into sleep. During the service, two girls received their first communion and their was one baptism.

Between the bombas, which I am not getting used to, calling all to worship, the amplified harp beat and the multitude of people... the celebration drew some attention. During the baptism, the son of the mayor and two other youth who were sons of the Catholic Catechists cut the lights to the church... and we fell into complete darkness. How fitting it is that Advent was upon us when we are reminded that Christ is the light of the world. The child was baptised... light or no light... her light will shine through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the light returned.

While we continued, Santiago confronted the boys. He told them not to bother us because we were serving God. They responded by punching him and running. So... after the service was over (two and a half hours later) we skipped out on the next five hours of activities in order to sleep. We had to be walked to the houses we were staying in to insure our safety.