Daylight Savings Time

Last Sunday, the Congolese families did not know to turn back their clocks. And I did not think to tell them. So, they showed up at the 10 a.m. service.

To get this picture, you have to know this about The Rock La Roca. It is a Restart Church. The old church, Epworth, had fallen on hard times, was probably going to close. It restarted with a lot of help from the Conference. The 10 a.m. service is mostly the folks from Epworth congregation. The service is fairly traditional. The 11:15 service is the contemporary service. I think there is a sort of deference paid to this service as it is the “new” one, and has drawn a lot of new people. But in my rambling thru the community, the people are actually going to respond to the 10 a.m. service. But I digress.

The Congolese families have been coming to 11:15. I wasn’t sure what would happen at the 10 a.m. service. But I looked into the congregation and saw the Congolese singing! Had they learned English? No. Madame Itoula showed me later that night at her home the songbook they used in Congo. It is in the Ki-Kongo language, but the melodies are the ones we know! The missionaries translated the words of our hymns into their language. So they knew the songs!

The early service people just mobbed them with love. And afterwards, two families said whatever it will take for us to get a multi-channel broadcast device, they will pay for it. The goal is to be able to do simultaneous translation in a number of languages, broadcast it to headsets, and many peoples can worship together!

I have this sense that the old Epworth, now The Rock La Roca, a church that sent out more than 50 pastors and missionaries—I have a growing conviction that this church was raised up not for the glory that it had for 50 years, but rather to be here now and in the future. The old Epworth has a heart for mission and evangelism. Those days are not over! If we can get everybody together, to let the early service see the power and passion of the 11:15 service, to see it reaching people who might not otherwise come to church; if the early and 11:15 services could embrace the evening (largely Hispanic) service; and if the “new” services could hear the stories and see the heart of the first service, what a church we would have! What wonderful work the Holy Spirit might do through us!