Alto Libertad

Yesterday we went to church for the first time. There are 4 different Nazarene Churches in Arequipa and the 12 of us 40/40 missionaries have been split up among the churches. The church we are at is where we will be attending 3 or 4 days a week and helping out wherever we can while doing language school. The one I am at is called Alto Libertad and it was an AMAZING experience!
The church is about 30 minutes away from where we are living and is near an agricultural part of the city. There was a dirt floor and the walls were just tarps that ended about a foot before reaching the ceiling, which was also a big tarp. There were maybe about 20 peruana adults (Peruvians) and about 7 or 8 ninos. Even though I couldn't understand most of the sermon I could tell the pastor had a gift for preaching. El Pastor has been a pastor since he was 20 and he's now 28. The church is much more modern than most very conservative Nazarene churches in Peru. They use the King James Version of the Bible but the music used was more modern than the hymns that most others still use.
Anway I'm really excited to get to know the people at this church and have the chance to work with them. It was SO AMAZING to see God's people worshiping in this church with a dirt floor and tarp walls and a random assortment of chairs to sit on, and know that all of that doesn't matter because God was in that place. At the end of service the Pastor was explaining to the congregation about how they want to start a mission to feed 50 kids. They collected an offering and had people sign up to bring things to feed children starting next week. The area that the church is a poorer part of Arequipa. Just to see people who don't have much giving the little they have to be God's people and feed those even less fortunate than themselves was so cool to see.
Oh I almost forgot one of my favorite parts. In the middle of the service a chicken walked through the aisles. Someone ran and grabbed it and threw it outside. Pretty great. I was picturing that happening at Mission Church and I cracked myself up :)

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