A typical Sunday

If you've ever been to the The Livingroom Church, you might know that we are very grateful for the use of the Wallyford Miners' Club, which is normally a pub, so we have to be out of the way for normal working hours. Usually we get in at about 9.30am, and have 30 mins to set up the rooms for our service and Sunday School, then we have 1 hour and 15 mins for what we do, which includes time to sing, pray, let people know what's happening during the week, and then get into the Bible.

Things couldn't be more different at the church that we have been going to on Sundays.

We arrive at 12pm taking about 45 mins to get there from where we are staying, although some from the church have been there from 9.30 for prayer, then Sunday School for the whole church until 11.45am, then the normal church service.

So, while in the Livingroom, we have to be done in 75 mins flat, in La Loma, just for the service, they sing for 60 mins. It's loud and lively stuff in Mexico. Part of the singing time is a prayer time, when many people go up to the front to pray, and so the Pastor will pray for them in their needs. Tabitha declared today that he must do the longest prayers in history.

Then there is the preaching. Our time in the Miners' Club is limited, here, if the Pastor wants to preach on, he does, today it was 1 hour and 10 mins. (And good stuff too!)  ((I preached the Sunday before and was considered very short at 45 mins!!!))

In the background you can see the Mexican flag. It's important to have that in the churches here. In a country where the majority have been brought up Catholic, for some, to be Mexican is to be Catholic, displaying the flag reminds people that even though they might not be Catholic, they are still true patriots.

We started at 12, and finished at 2.15 today, then we had 20 mins of announcements and asking for help for various things in the church, including a holiday Bible club from 25th to the 29th of July, which we'll be helping at a little. We finally left church at 3pm after chatting to folks that we knew from being here before and finally we have an hour's journey in heavy traffic to get home. 2 more to go...