The other church we visited while in Xela was the Templo Evangelico Presbiteriano Filadelfia. Some of the funds for this church were raised by four presbyterian churches in the Hamilton are of Ontario, which is where several of our group members were from - Specifically Wendy, Heather and Deanna, whose church had been the main force behind the fundraising.
We joined some of the elders and the members of the building committee for a little sitdown/introduction before taking a tour of the church - I have to say, it is one of the most beautiful churches I have seen, it is of course not a grand cathedral, but the floors are marble tile, the pews hand made from cedar and stained a deep mahogany,and the doors are also hand made.
After our little tour we sat down to a great dinner in the old hall, and then moved over into the church for a service, after which we were introduced to our home-stay families with whom we would be spending the night. The evening was again an emotional affair for those who, for the first time, were able to see the fruits of their labor. And the church presented decorated plaques to each church involved in the fundraising. They sang songs they had prepared for us, and we sang a couple we had prepared for them, then we all split off with our home-stay families for the night.
What songs did you sing? Sounds like fun, and I imagine the church was a great labour of love for everyone involved.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to hear more about what the homes were like that you stayed in ... I'll bet that kind of thing is forcing you to learn Spanish ... pronto!
I did better than I thought I would with the spanish, that's for sure. We Sang Amigo's De Cristo and another that I can't remember the name of.
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