We arrive late and are barely able to enter the packed church. The benches are packed and people are standing everywhere, even on the steps entering the church.
It is Friday evening and we are at one of several Catholic Churches in Riobamba. Lay persons are carrying flowers, fruit, a large sack of rice and other items to the front of the church. The priest receives them with a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing. People continue to press in. Being taller than most, I am able to see what is happening. Others are standing on tip-toes trying to watch.
It is time for communion. Judy and I walk forward to receive the wafer the priest places in our mouth. Our Catholic friends are kneeling in sincere prayer. When the service ends, the crowd enters the street where there is hot tea and bread for all. A loud explosion nearby startles me. Someone is setting off fireworks a few feet away. It is downtown Riobamba and hundreds of people have seemed to worship God with sincerity and purpose.
It is now Saturday evening. Rose petals line the path where each couple enters the evangelical charismatic church. Women are clapping and cheering and celebrating each couple as they enter. The husbands are given a red balloon in the shape of a heart. The worship band is playing upbeat loud music. It is the end of a day-long marriage retreat for about sixty couples as they gather to celebrate and recommit their love for one another.
Judy and I are sitting in the back, off to the side. We came to hear Janelle play flute and oboe with the worship band. But the organizers refuse to allow us be bystanders. They bring in extra chairs and insist on us joining the rest of the couples.
Joy explodes inside the room as everyone joins the worship band with singing, dancing, and clapping. Thirty minutes later, there is a message of encouragement for the married couples and then communion is shared as couples. We have experienced communion two nights in a row in completely different settings, both very meaningful and sincere.
Husbands are invited to pray for their wives as they lay hands on their heads. More prayer, more worship, and then more prayer. God is in this place! I notice several couples wiping tears from their eyes. There is a final song of joyful celebration – more dancing, shouting, clapping and praising God for what God is doing in these marriages. The evening ends with a feast and a time of fellowship and joy!
Sunday morning, I awake at 5:30 with roosters crowing. At 7:30 church bells are ringing. Church bells seem to ring with great urgency in Ecuador. In Italy and Greece, they rang slow and steady. Here they ring fast as though it is time NOW to come.
Janelle has already left the house to practice with the praise band which began at 7 a.m. We join Janelle and the praise band about 8:45. The worship service has already begun. We are 15 minutes late. Janelle is again playing her flute and oboe during the first hour of music and worship.
A sermon and time of response takes up the second hour. By 10:30, the service is over, and we are on our way to the market with Janelle and Frank to buy fruit and vegetables for a picnic at the ranch where they are building their new house.
At the ranch, we ride horses, bake two chickens in an outdoor oven, and enjoy a wonderful feast with Janelle, Frank and friends. After lunch we take a hike around the ranch and then go to a neighboring village which is having a big festival. A wild bull is in the center of a ring surrounded by hundreds of people. Clowns and others who want to show off their brevity, dance in front of the bull and then run for the fence as the bull chases them. Every so often one of the persons misjudges and gets knocked down or thrown forward by the charging bull.
The sun is setting as we return to Riobamba. Friends join us in Frank and Janelle’s apartment. We are going to make crepes, but first we go downtown Riobamba to watch a procession that kicks off Holy Week a week early. The Franciscan Catholic Church we attended Friday evening is having a long procession throughout the town of Riobamba. Thousands of people are part of the procession, some carrying large statutes of Jesus. It is like a parade with floats, but the floats are carried through the streets by youth. Hundreds of other youth are holding hands and marching in the procession. It seems like most of the city is here, but this is just one of six large Catholic churches in Riobamba.
The young, middle aged, and elderly are walking in the procession – some carrying candles, others carrying crosses – everyone seems to be in a serious mood contemplating the meaning of Jesus carrying the cross on his way to the crucifixion. One man representing Jesus is carrying and dragging a large wooden cross over his shoulder. He is bare foot and looks weary and exhausted.
What a weekend! Four different occasions of experiencing a deep spirituality that exists in Ecuador. I ponder what New Holland would look like if we took our religious faith this seriously. I ponder what our churches could look like. I ponder and I pray.
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