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Photo by Geoffrey D. Brown
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By Geoffrey D. Brown
News-Post Staff
gbrown@fredericknewspost.com
PUENTE BLANCO, Guatemala — Half the congregation are children, sitting with their mothers all clad in their best, brightest clothing. There are a total of seven men — most of the village men have gone to a soccer match.
An older woman in her Sunday finest hurries down the path. Church starts at 6:30 a.m., but the people trickle in for an hour.
Visitors from the Iglesia Del Nazareno in the main city of Zacapa are easy to identify by their more urban clothes. The Nazarene congregation has brought enough plastic chairs to fill the church; its new concrete floor and waist-high stone walls gleam in contrast to the brown mud outside.
After an hour of song, Pastor Carlos Lopez Mejia winds himself up in an emotional sermon.
Outside the church two dogs chase a third down the path toward the river as the children sing. The dogs later saunter into the church and sit under the chairs of the women and children.
A group of young men stay up on the hill behind the pulpit, in the shadow of the water tower. The services are often like this — men on the periphery, watching intently but not taking part, women and children inside. It’s good to see the men there, several of the missionaries say. They’re clearly interested.
The songs of the Nazarenes and especially Pastor Carlos’s piercing voice reverberate throughout the week the mission from the Frederick Church of the Brethren is in town. His voice is the first to welcome worshippers at a new church in the village of Pie de la Cuesta. Frederick Brethren and their on-site hosts Robert Jackson and Tharsis Rodriguez-Jackson, join Pastor Carlos and the Nazarenes for worship in Zacapa later in the week.