Hillsong

Let me give you a snapshot of my Tuesday night:

I’m standing in the middle of an open soccer stadium. Its dark and I can see an almost full moon, just over my right shoulder. The day has finally cooled down and every once in a while, I can feel a cool breeze brush across the top of my chacos.  I am surrounded by people - Spanish speaking, Bolivian people. The three other ‘gringas’ and I are bobbing blonde heads in a sea of black.

In front of me, too far away for me to make out their faces, is Hillsong, one of the most well known  worship bands, who has traveled all the way from Australia to South America for the first time. The band only speaks English but most of their songs have been recorded in Spanish and it seems like everyone in the Evangelical world here knows them.

And so I stand there, listening to them singing: So I’ll stand, with arms raised and hearts abandoned, to serve, the one who gave it all.

Slowly the words being sung by my neighbors filter through the English: Aquí estoy Mis manos levanto hacia Ti Jesús te entrego hoy mi ser

So there we were, two languages praising God with different words but with the same heart.