Bottom line, I was blown away; a night and day difference from pretty much all I’ve seen before. Let me tell you why. First off, they have over 5000 members, but only a “small” facility right now, and thus hold about six different services spread out from Saturday through Monday. The place was packed to say the least, and very, very warm. This leads into my next observation. The people in this church like to worship in a manner popular among youth in the US right now, except people of all ages get in on the action, from grandma, to wee little ones. This type of worship involves lots of singing along to Christian rock, arm waving (often with eyes closed, one lady kept hitting me in the chest), jumping up and down, crying, looking at the ceiling, and sweating. Nothing like a packed, active church to demonstrate the efficiency of the human body in producing heat! Oh, and guess what? Their main pastor, and church founder, is an American who came to Ecuador about 20 years ago; I met him at the end of the service and he seemed like a pretty down to earth kind of guy.
They had a guest pastor from Colombia do the sermon today, and let me tell you, Colombian Spanish is not nearly as clear and slow as that spoken in Quito. Thus, I had a hard time understanding him but the bottom-line of his talk was beware the dangers of excessive pride; humility is the way to go. Always a good lesson to keep in mind.
Upon reflection I don’t think this was a good representation of a traditional Ecuadorian service, i.e. Catholic, although in all honesty I have never attended a Catholic service. The church I was at today was non-denominational.
However, I was glad I went, lots of new things to experience; that’s why I’m here after all!
(My friend Tatiana "Taty" in the lab.)
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