Ellen in Paraguay

I dedicate this entry to my friend Scott who has faithfully read my blog and responded with interesting comments. He asked what view of the Bible the people here take. Obviously I only really know about my church and even then it will full of generalizations, but I present to you my observations and a few tidbits of some people’s religious views. The first thing I want to say is that regardless of what the people believe on certain issues, I have definitely experienced love and fellowship being with them. I like going to church and I like spending lots of the time being with them and going over to people’s houses for meals or just to visit. The church here has had its share of problems like any other church, Karen has told me, but they work through them. And I think the church loving each other as family is more important than any doctrinal issue. Warning: I am working on a handbook for North Americans who want to come here for short-term missions, and one of the points I was working on today was not being critical, especially when writing home, but I think what I want to write next is important for you to be able to understand the evangelical church here. (I will post a copy of the handbook when it’s slightly more complete and ask for your feedback). The first thing I noticed when I walked into the “templo” (the people are the church, and the building they call the temple), was the stained glass window that depicted, what else? the Bible. Well, it’s not REALLY a stained glass window; similar, but the stained glass part is missing and it’s more of a hole in the wall with the metal outline of a Bible. Honestly I was a little worried to see a Bible at the front of the church, as opposed to a cross. After all, the Bible is not the center of our worship, it tells us about the One Whom we worship. The Cross is, in my mind, a much better symbol of the central message of Christianity, representing the extent to which Christ was willing to suffer out of love for us. I think the reason behind it is that the evangelical church here feels a lot of pressure to counteract the Catholic Church. I know someone who stopped wearing a cross on her neck because someone asked her if she was Catholic. Another family I know has a very pious elderly mother who is very involved at her Catholic Church, but they are sure she is unsaved. On the other hand, the ladies in the mother’s bible study told her not to convert to the religion of her daughters because then she won’t be saved! A very nice family but what a bunch of needless tension. Another teacher at the church today was telling me how horrible it is that Catholics recite prayers. And I’ve also read tracts that are more anti-catholic propaganda than actual presentations of the gospel. So I think the Church on both sides is suffering from a lack of understanding. Our church (sorry, I mean, our temple) can’t even have a cross, the primary symbol of the Christian religion, because it’s considered too Catholic. I’m guessing that is also why we call our church building a temple, in contrast to the nicer-looking Catholic churches (at least no one will ever be tempted to worship our building!) To me some of the anti-catholicism causes a bit of a watering-down of the Gospel.

Church starts at 8:30 in the morning, but is finished by 10, so we spend tons of time just hanging out with each other on Sundays. Sundays have always been my favourite (even when I had to ride to church in the same vehicle with my dad and his crazy driving), but now they enchant/charm me (a very literal translation of the Spanish way of saying you love something, “me encanata”). In church I like to sit by my friend Laura who translates a few of the key points for me or writes notes in Spanish which I can then read. And the rest of the time I make up a sermon in my own head based on the scripture. The sermons are fairly simple and easy for me to follow. Mostly it is a lot of words of exhortation about the usual: being separate from the world, needing faith, not worrying, etc. I really liked one sermon on the night that we had communion about how Christians are to love each other. The people pray and preach with lots of passion and emotion and EMphasis and loudly.

Anyways, the people definitely would say that the Bible is their main authority and they try to live their lives by it. More than a lot of direct Bible reading though, it seems like devotional books are the big thing here. Both my roommates get up early and read devotional books every morning. We also have devotionals with the teachers every morning, and 90% of the time the teacher will read from his or her daily devotional. Max Lucado is HUGE here, but I’ve also met two really big Benny Hinn fans. Franklin Graham came to Asunción a year ago and they still talk about him. Last Saturday we played a trivia game at church which included NT and OT categories, and the people seemed to know quite a bit. Oh I have to stray from my topic to tell a funny story about that. They were splitting up the teams into “casada” and “no casada” which means married and single. I left to go to the opposite side of the one I was on, saying to my neighbor “no estoy cansada,” by which I meant that I was not tired, because I didn’t really hear the instructions right. Thankfully I ended up on the singles’ side. I am glad I had taken a nap before church and didn’t feel tired that night, otherwise I would have intended to stay on the “casada” side and been somewhat avergonzala (embarrassed-a word I use a lot to describe how I feel). Anyways, my team got 400 points for me knowing the opening words of Isaiah’s call, even though I couldn’t say it in Spanish.

# posted by Ellen @ 7:56 PM