Tico Times

Shortly after 7:00 on Sunday morning, I ventured out of the house and began my 15-20 minute walk to a new church I discovered in the town of San Pablo. I started off on the main street, which was nice and quiet for a change, and then made a right turn alongside the coffee fields. Soon I was making my way through a residential area and eventually I arrived at the church, Cristo Centro.

I was warmly greeted and quickly took a seat to listen to the announcements that were being given. I looked around taking in my surroundings. The church building had a small warehouse kind of feel. There were about 40 people, but then again, this was the early service.

After the musical portion of the worship ended, a man went up to the front to welcome everyone and asked if there were any newcomers (as he looked directly at me). I nodded my head. He asked my name. I told him. A woman came over and gave me a hug. I sat back down thinking, “phew, they aren’t going to make me say anything else or go up front.” Just as the thought crossed my mind, I was asked to go up front. “Oh no!” I thought. As I got up there, the worship director began leading the musicians and the congregation in a song called, “You are Special.” The whole church sang it just to me. I politely smiled as I entered into a fleeting moment of culture shock. “Never in a million years would my church do this in the States,” I mused to myself.

The Pastor made his way up front and taught from a handful of passages, using a video projector as an aid to his message. The video projector had also been used during the music time, which I found to be a relief since I didn’t know all the words to the songs. The sermon ended about 9:40am, which was just over 2 hours after the service began. This is a typical length for a church service in Costa Rica.

After the service, I met the Pastor and his wife as well as a woman named Susy. She leads a women’s ministry and I look forward to chatting with her more about that. She gave me her business card as I looked over to a group of people that had been in the first service with me. They were enjoying a traditional Costa Rican breakfast called Gallo Pinto. “Note to self,” I thought, “don’t eat breakfast before you come to church next time.”