The power goes out. It’s time for church. What do you do? Get candles of course.
We were at Villa Mella for church and just as it was time for church to start the power goes out. We sit there in the dark and someone gets out a match. There just happens to be a candle in the framing of the church walls, so the candle is lit and the conversations start up again. Someone brings in a bag of candles and we light them and put them around the church. We start church by singing, we are about halfway through the song when the power suddenly returns. Someone shouts Glora a Dios! (Glory to God) and we continue to worship with even more joy.
In those moments it hit me how much we in America rely on technology. How we “can’t” do praise and worship without the overhead words and the singers blending just right and all the instruments being on the right sound level. How much do we take for granted? If the power went out at our church would it continue as if nothing had happened or would everything stop? I will confess to you that in that moment my first thought was ‘oh well I guess we go back home now.’ I am truly thankful that we did not but continued to praise God through it all.
I learned through this that all we need to praise God in a willing heart and our own voices.
I believe my perception of “Church” will be stretched and changed a lot in the next 11 months. It is my prayer that I welcome these experiences with an open heart.
Church by candlelight was an amazing experience and one I think I might repeat often if I can. God does not put limits on our praise time and I don’t think we should either.
“Lord stretch me in new ways that I might grow in you more each day.”
