Iglesia Presbiteriana San Jorge

Sunday afternoon we road in a big truck to three newer or smaller congregations. The first one was in the northern part of El Estor, in the San Jorge (St. George) neighborhood. The Iglesia Presbiteriana San Jorge is one of two congregations that earlier this year affiliated with the Q’eqchi’ Estoreño, Izabal presbytery (San Jorge in February). (We were told the church was two months old, but the story we're told also implies that the congregation predates the Valentine's Day February 14 affiliation date.) The congregation has some 70 members. The pastor, Mario Xo Ical, is an energetic, crew-cut younger man with an evangelical preaching style. With minimal real walls to its building, which made being in it cooler, and a very loud sound system, which we envied in some ways after the sound system challenges at our church, the sound of the early Sunday afternoon worship service boomed throughout the little neighborhood. I had sat right next to one of the speakers, and so I heard the music and words emphatically. (Short videos I shot with my camera of this service one has no trouble hearing the audio of.) Pastor Mario’s children joined in the worship, and one of Pastor Mario’s sons (pictured with his father above and below) played a pretty sophisticated electronic keyboard, which he sometimes programmed (including with percussion) before the songs began.

Pastor Mario sang and preached – sometimes with the music in the background. The high point for me was his contemporary Spanish-language version - with booming bass and percussion - of “How Great Thou Art.”

In addition, a young woman from the congregation came up and sang (and most of those in the congregation – except for the pastors traveling with us – were women and children). And then the pastors called for one of us to speak and – after hesitating – at the drop of a hat – our Benjamin launched into an abbreviated version of his “luz” sermon from Saturday night, as we basked in the glow of God’s light shining through them. The whole service had a somewhat more evangelical or even Pentecostal feel to it – perhaps like at the Espiritu Santo church where we would not be worshiping this time – and we sang and clapped – though I noticed that some of the other pastors there did not join in the clapping (although one of our theories was that at least one of the pastors wasn’t feeling great - although it's also possible that the pastors thought this congregation's worship was too un-Presbyterian - or thought that we might think so).

I believe this was one of the churches where they brought beverages to us after worship – for brief refreshments before we continued on our way – but we had to decline because the beverages were made with the local water, which we couldn’t drink. And then we were bounding into the truck onto the next congregation.

-- Perry