Dedication

Today we had the pleasure of attending a dedication mass at the new large church in El Tablon. The caserio of Munoces is within the canton of El Tablon and there were many people at the dedication from Munoces. Long-time members of First Presbyterian in Newton will remember El Tablon as the first canton that we had a connection with through Bob Cook in the 1990's. Do you remember the treddle sewing machines we sent?? I saw a few of those today in the sewing center where we had lunch. Anyway, these days El Tablon is in a partnership with Heartland Presbyterian. Largely through a gift from some organization in Germany they have been able to build a new large, beautiful church.

Because Casa Pastoral has been involved in the community for many years and has helped pave the way to this day, we were all invited to the mass of dedication. The mass was led by all 3 priests from Berlin, as well as the bishop of this area. The community, led by the priests, gathered a couple "blocks" away and processed into the church singing.

The church was decorated with lots of flowers, balloons, and signs. The mass was very formal and reminded me of watching Christmas Eve mass at St. Peters in Rome on TV.

Our best guess is that there were about 200 people in attendence and they could really raise the rafters when singing songs they all knew.

Bob Cook happened to be in Berlin and attended with us. He saw lots of old friends from the last 20 years of connection in El Tablon, including the bishop who had helped him years ago to remain in El Salvador, doing his work with the poor.

Following the mass we were served lunch in an area for special guests where we could sit down. All the people were served the same generous meal but they had to take theirs home or eat standing up. It was quite an exciting day for the community and we were honored to be a part of it.