Worship in Argentina...

Worship Services
By Kim Crawford

Lisa leading worship (the whole team is off to her right where you can't see her...that is why there are so many empty chairs)

Offering

On Sunday we woke up early and after a quick breakfast we turned our sleeping room into a sanctuary. Together with the people of the Covenant church we worshiped with singing, prayers, preaching and an offertory – of course. The service was pleasant and joyful. Our group doubled the size of the congregation of this quaint town. We, the MCC folk, tried our best to sing the songs that they led and they did the same in turn. There was a delightful energy to this little service that concluded with an encouraging benediction from our friend Mark Westlind (aka Marco). In our debriefing time last night Amanda said, “Even though we’re from opposite places in the world and have different worship styles, it was cool how we could all worship together.” And we all agreed. It was neat to worship together.



After church we hopped onto our bus and headed to Rosario, a city just about an hour or so away. And there we went to another worship service. Tens of thousands of chanting, screaming fans poured into the stadium to cheer for Newhall’s Old Boys -- THEIR football team. In a sea of black and red, people wore shirts, waved large flags, held banners and even stood on the high pillars of the stadium. As the team made their way from the tunnel onto the field the crowds began to play drums, sing and cheer. Throughout the game the fans would break out into singing songs to cheer and implore the home team. They also sang songs to jeer and mock the rival. There were no cheerleaders to guide or jumbo-tron to direct them – they simply knew these songs by heart and joined in spontaneously. They threw confetti and all held red and black balloons. A giant banner was strewn across the fan section covering hundreds of people. All of this to give laud and honor to their team.

Some of the boys bought jerseys that said something like "we don't need speakers 'cuse our fans are loud enough..."

People wore clothes declaring, “I am a Newhall” and “Newhall is my passion.” Passion? Donovon later remarked, “I was drawn in by how passionate they were. There’s not anything that I an as passionate about as they are about football. If anything we should be passionate about God,” His words summarized how I felt as I sat in the stands among the fans. These people are truly passionate about football; they live and breathe by it. They identify themselves with this team, its colors, its nicknames, its history.

So Donovan, I get your comment. Am I passionate about Jesus the way they are passionate about their Old Boys? Would I wear clothes that say so? Do I spend hours on a Sunday yelling and screaming and singing in tribute to God? If someone were to judge my worship would they call it passionate?