After breakfast and a chance to get acquainted with our new home for a week, we got ready for our trip to church. Long pants for men and dresses for women are the custom for the Presbyterian Church in Ocosingo. Dressed and ready for our trip downtown we loaded up in our cab. Not the ordinary cab, a small Nissan or VW with worn out shocks and matching interior, but another popular mode of transportation. It was a pickup with a bar in the bed of the truck about nose high to hold on to as we stood and as the truck sped down the road to church. A brief shower helped cool us off and lay down our hair as we made our way to the church.
The Rock of Salvation Mission Church is located half way down a steep concrete road that reminds you of some steep hills in
Concrete block construction and a concrete roof covered the front half of the church. The back half of the ceiling was covered by wood planks held up by 2 X 4’s strapped together with wire. No 2 X 4 was long enough to reach from dirt floor to ceiling so the boards were notched and wired and nailed together to make them long enough. In the back of the church more support posts were stored to be used as needed.
The windows of the church were simply openings in the concrete block wall and the front window revealed a beautiful view of the mountains in the distance.
Men sat on the left and women on the right except for the teenage members who bucked tradition and sat together at the front of the church.
After introducing ourselves to the Rock of Salvation members and singing three songs in Spanish, our group enjoyed a lunch of chicken and vegetable soup, corn tortillas and hot sauce, for those who dared. The meal was prepared and served by the members of the church who we are sure sacrificed for us to have this meal.
The group had some difficulty standing in the front of the church due to what was becoming a familiar site in Ocosingo, a pile of sand. The sand had most likely been shoveled by hand through the window opening in the front of the church and it covered a good portion of the altar.
While most churches would consider a large pile of sand in the sanctuary unacceptable, in the Rock of Salvation Mission and along the roads of Ocosingo, a pile of sand appeared to represent much more. In the case of this church it appeared to represent the hope of the people to continue to grow the mission and the ongoing progress toward this mission becoming a church. While still incomplete, it was definitely a house of God.
Geoff Pagett
