“How will you worship if no one on your team has a guitar?”
At launch, before we even left the country, we were asked this question.
No one on my team has a guitar so this question certainly applied to us. We discussed a few ideas. Then we arrived at our host ministry in Bogota, Colombia, and the answer was given to us.
The view from our home for the month
“Can you sing? Do any of you play guitar?” We were asked once we arrived early last Friday afternoon and sat down to a welcome snack of coffee, cereal and milk.
“No, none of us play guitar, but yes we can sing”, we answered.
“OK, you can sing three songs at our worship service tonight. In English, unless you sing in Spanish?”
No, we don’t sing in Spanish (yet), but three songs in English, that we could do. So, accompanied by youtube videos we sang at the end of the service. The congragation seemed to enjoy it.
The following evening, after a day of painting the church, we were having fun learning Colombian dances from one of the guys who helps out at the church.
“You like to dance?” our hostess asked when she found us in the chapel.
“Yes” we replied.
“Can you dance and sing in Church tomorrow? Our people would love it!”
Ok then, after a brainstorming session we came up a few ideas. A couple songs with motions, and one song Joey, my team leader who happens to be a dancer, could dance to while the rest of us sang.
Sunday morning came and near the end of the service my team went up to the front of the church to sing and dance. Just as our hostess had said they would, the congregation loved it. We sang in English but they knew one of the songs in Spanish so they sang along. That was pretty great to hear.
So really, it’s pretty easy to praise God through song and dance without musical instruments. We had nothing to be worried about there. We’ve even sung worship songs while painting!
Yes, lots of painting. Lots and lots of painting with some scraping, spackling, sanding, and a little bit of re-organizing thrown in. What we should have thought of before leaving the country is “Do we have any clothes packed that we wouldn’t mind painting in?
Santa Cecelia’s, our host ministry for the month, is perched on the edge of a mountain in one of the poorer areas of Bogota. They have a before and after school program for the kids in the area. Here the kids have Bible lessons, English lessons, and get help with their homework. We’re told that about 80 kids come every day! For the first week of our stay however the kids have been on Christmas break so we’ve been getting ready for when they come back, by painting.
Our first Saturday here we painted the chapel, where they hold Wednesday evening prayer services, Friday evening worship services, and Sunday morning church services. This past week it’s been the rest of the building, the classroom, the dining area, the kitchen, the pantry, the stairwell, the bathrooms, and the office. The paint fumes got so bad in the building one day that we couldn’t sleep in our bedroom that night (despite the fact it’s on a separate floor from where we were painting) and had to move to a separate apartment for the night. The following morning the place had aired out some and we were back to painting.
I’m glad we’ve been able to help Santa Cecelia’s out with all the painting that needed to happen, but I’ve really been missing the kids I nannied at home, so I’m thrilled that this week we get to work with the kids in the program! (Also I’m really happy to be done painting! That was alot of painting!)
