Iglesia Familia de Noe

After dinner at the Familia de Noe (Family of Noah) church in the Sinai neighborhood in eastern El Estor (with some 161 members), we shifted into the first full-fledged worship service. Although Pastor Benjamin Sacul is pastor of the church, all of the pastors led the service. Above Pastors Raul Contreras and Pablo Sacul (the presbytery president who also turned out to be Pastor Benjamin's father) helped start things off. Below Pastor Jose Domingo, on your right, joins in.


(Made with wood more than the Peniel church with its concrete blocks and only a few years old, the building of the Familia de Noe no doubt could use some work, and in fact that the congregation had a building fund jar displayed prominently in front of where I was sitting, to the right of the pulpit. I saw a few folks in the congregation putting money into the jar during worship.) High points of worship included both the pastors and then the congregation's youth singing, our Benjamin and Lucas presenting Familia de Noe's youth with a banner that the Crescent Hill youth had designed, and a fiery sermon by our Benjamin. Below Lucas stands up on the raised platform readying to speak briefly before the banner presentation.



And below Benjamin and Luke speak.


Below the president of the (mixed-gender) youth group, a young woman (which seemed unusual in El Estor), received the banner as Benjamin looked on. (Familia de Noe is said to be a youth-oriented church, and this was one of three congregations we visited in which an official youth group played some role in worship. For this presbytery, as for us, youth ministries seems important. Children are also in evidence in worship.)


Before we left, we had decided that Benjamin would preach during this Saturday evening worship service and Pastora Juanita. Juanita planned to preach at greater length than two years ago. We tried to be careful at this since the presbytery's congregations have no female pastors, elders, or deacons, and it's easy for them to start thinking that men among us - including Benjamin, a minister ordained in another tradition - are the pastors, not Juanita. But Benjamin's Spanish is at least as good any of those on trip, except perhaps for Elena, and this arrangement insured that Juanita didn't have to prepare two different sermons. Benjamin spoke somewhat extemporaneusly about the luz (light) evident that night (even though without Daylight Savings Time it was very dark outside by then and relatively dark in the sanctuary lit dimly with some electric lights). Those of us with mediocre Spanish didn't pick up every word, and we don't know how the many women and others who may or may not have spoken Spanish well picked up on it. But Benjamin no doubt used relatively simple language and has a decent accident. He used a fair amount of body language to get his point across, and he triggered some call and response with a technique he said he learned from pastors in the Dominican Republican (if not also from his South Carolina Southern Baptist upbringing), saying "Amen?" And getting back increasingly thunderous "Amen" from the congregation.


As Benjamin finished up, worship was quickly over. There was a little confusion about which of us were staying with which - and a little jockeying - but quickly we were whisked away - mainly by cab - to houses of the pastors of the various El Estor area churches. And so the staying with families adventure began.

-- Perry