Church in Pamplona!

So on Sunday night, all the other Australian girls and I went to visit this church that I've been looking at online. I really don't know what to think about it - except that it's a pentecostal, protestant church. It says that it starts at 6.30pm, but when we arrived, it was almost completely full. I can't really approximate how many people were there, but I'd say as much as my church service at home when full- around 90.

It started with a lot of songs: about dedicating our lives to Jesus, and how marvellous He is. It was a really animated song, with people clapping and almost dancing where they stood; then a more pensive song about longing to be in God's presence, etc. When the songs finished, there was a sermon. It was pretty solid and bible based from what I understood; even though the bible passage was not read out by itself, the sermon quoted events and short passages from the bible. He was even talking about how faith was the basis of salvation, rather than the action of going to church. I kind of started tuning out halfway through, because it was in spanish and my concentration in spanish is pretty short, hehe. He had about four or five main points, and the way he delivered it, was that at the revelation of each main point, he would speak faster and energetically; whilst the people cried amen!

At the end of the sermon he asked people who wanted him to pray for them, to stand at the front. The music team sang two songs (roughly 10 mins) whilst he walked around and prayed individually. At this part, I saw many people crying, hugging; and according to my friend, a woman had a fit and fell to the ground, etc. Others that hadn't gone up to the front were praying around us out loud. Finally, the speaker gave a public prayer and concluded the service with testimonies of God's healing: ie a woman said that her pain in the head had disappeared, praise be to God.

The church is as different from my home church as possible! It's very emotional, very passionate; whilst my home church is more logical, and calmly approaches the bible. I'm very critical of it, but I don't know if it's because the way they worship is so alien to me, or something that I should be careful of.

I don't agree that the public church prayer should focus so much on physical healing: I know that it is possible with God, but the focus should be on spiritual growth. Jesus suffered so much physically, as did the apostles; its not necessarily something to avoid, but something that is sometimes part of God's good plan. By placing the focus on physical healing, it makes the church more like a mystical place for healing, rather than a place for knowing and worshiping the true God on His terms.
But the emotion and passion in music is nice. Each person had their own way of singing - some were swaying, or clapping or raising their arms: and just not caring about looking weird; but focused on worshiping in their own way.


In the end, I still don't know what to think. I didn't come to Pamplona expecting that I'd find a church that I completely agreed with, nothing is completely perfect. Maybe I'll go home wanting to make changes to my own church! Now that it has come to it though; I'm not sure if the reason why I feel so critical of it is because of the different way they worship, or in something that doesn't focus properly on God.

I'll leave you with some photos I've taken today one the way to uni:

I lie, this was not today, it was actually yesterday
But this is interesting, because its a protest in Basque:
I haven't found anyone who can read it yet
 (the local language here is Basque - 
not castellano, which is what people know as spanish)

On my way to uni

They have cool pedestrian lights here:
There are no buttons to press, but they have a countdown:
so here there's 49 seconds until I can walk.
When it's green, they have a little figure running, it's really funny
Ready, set, GO!

It's getting colder: this is frost on cars parked outside

Sunrise at my uni: this is seriously at 9am

Sunset outside my flat: I live in the building on the right