The Church of Christ
..., they moved to a bigger church on Grand Street and rented the place for a few years. The church then moved to the location that it is in right now. It has now been there for about 10 years. This church building is not being rented; with the help of the church members we now own this building. Pastor Aldana has been preaching the word of God for almost 18 years and the church has grown much. It started with about 30 members and currently there are over 600 members, and I am one of them. Pastor Aldana’s vision is “that the word of God grows in the people, and that families are benefited so that they can expand the kingdom of God”. As one enters the church building it is obvious that this church is different from many others. Even inside there are no crosses or paintings of Jesus that are so commonly seen at most churches. There are many different hallways that lead to small rooms. In these small rooms children are taken to be taught while the parents are in the service. It is like Sunday school; the only difference is that this in not only done on Sundays. These rooms look just like school classrooms, but with drawings of biblical characters all over the walls, rather than multiplication facts and other decorations normally seen in classrooms. Towards the back of the church there is a small bookstore where Bibles, books, CD’s, and other material can be purchased. All the money earned there goes to the church. Two big restrooms are located near the bookstore. The restrooms are kept very neat and clean. The sanctuary is very big and can seat up to 1200 people. The pink seats are very comfortable to sit on. The way that things are arranged in the sanctuary make you feel welcome and feels almost like a homey atmosphere. Again, there are no crosses or paintings, only a few banners hanging on the walls with words such as “Praise the Lord” and “He reigns” printed on them. Most of the members there are Mexican, and others are Salvadorian and Guatemalan. The pastor is Salvadorian. More than half of the church consists of people over 30 years of age. The rest of the people are youth and kids. Besides the usual services held, there are other activities done at this church. Many of the activities are for kids. Some of them are: basketball tournaments, going to the park, bowling, or simply having a play day outside of the church. The most important thing done there is the service to God, which consists of praying, singing, worshipping, and listening to the word of God. People there are free to worship in whatever way they want and express their words of gratitude to God as loud as they please. You will never just see people clapping and singing. They jump and scream with such joy as if they had just won the lottery. You can truly see the happiness in the hearts of all these people. You see people singing with all their hearts, jumping and sweating like they just ran a marathon. They give all their as they worship God. This truly is an amazing sight. Last Sunday I went to church and just sat there observing everything that went on around me. I could see the necessity in the eyes of the people; the need that they had to be able to get away from the worl...