From Philip's personal Journal... dated 6-03-2005
El Calvario
"Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." John 19:11
A disinterested young girl, maybe 10 years old, plays with a broken umbrella in the aisle. She's wearing a prettly blue dress and dirty, white Mary Janes.
"For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same." Romans 13:3
The woman who took offering at the front door when we entered before the service is preparing to pass the plate through the congregation.
"Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour." Romans 13:7

Chocolenses are tremendously practical people. They have to be to survive here. They are like their machete; visibly worn from use but still impossibly sharp, and capable of performing a million and one tasks, whatever it takes. It is for just this reason that I don't understand how popular the evangelical chuch has become here. El Calvario has one of the best maintained buildings in the village. The value of their musical instruments and PA equipment is likely enough to repair the village's failing plumbing and sewage infrastructure. Perhaps the message of the curhch doesn't run as deep with these people as I initially suspect... maybe they are more like the girl in the blue dress, looking for something to be distracted with on a friday night. There's no soccer tonite, after all.