It is Saturday morning. People are confirming departure plans and the like. Yesterday everyone I talked with was tired. Our flight leaves at 10:50 tomorrow which means that we will miss the closing worship. I hear that an additional 3000 people from Asuncion and surroundings may come for the final worship. I hate to miss it. However we are already set to get back Monday morning and these are the connections that we have.
My sense is that the workshops here have generated quite a bit of energy. The Colombian church has led a workshop on the church’s interaction with government that generated large crowds and intense conversation on six occasions.I was part of a lively discussion regarding the creation of an MWC Global Sharing Fund. Some workshops have been moved off site 5 blocks in order to handle crowds larger than the classrooms here (some of which can easily handle 150 people) can accomodate.
Latin American Mennonite Youth of all cultures seem to have endorsed a music style which is sort of a combination of a gospel rock band and American idol. I guess this gathering is not primarily about me and my preferences.
I want to say a bit more about the Indigenous people who are here. The Navicle and the Enhlet are the two large groups of Paraguayan Indigenous churches. There are large number of these people here (400?). They tend to stay together and move in large silent masses. Lynn Miller says that about half way through his workshop on simple living they started to respond to the topic. Mostly they sit in the back of the sanctuary. I wonder what they are thinking. My guess is that the are relatively comfortable observing this strange foreign culture. One of their leaders did the Thursday evening sermon. He surprised a lot of people by saying “I am a Mennonite.” These groups have not routinely used that language. Having said all this I was quite surprised when a group of eight teenage girls from one of the tribes did a worship service routine that seemed to me like an aerobic workout routine set to loud music. It may be that youth culture trumps tribal culture.
