We are now pastoring a small church which is an extension of the main church where we are very involved in many other things as well. Sundays we are at the main church and involved there singing, counseling, etc. Thursdays and Saturdays we are at "El Camino". The extension is in the middle of a number of very poor neighborhoods, so very different from the main church which has an unusual mix of people, taco vendors and such sitting next to lawyers and doctors!

Thursday we have the barcas, cell groups, which are small Bible study groups of different ages. Saturday was our "Sunday" service but the attendance was down to just about us and the 6 other barca leaders who came with us from the "mother" church. So we made a change from one Thursday to the next Saturday and started a "Happy Hour" for kids on Saturday nights.

The first Saturday, July 19, we decorated with streamers and balloons and filled small bags with popcorn, set out small cups of drinks. Then we went out in the neighborhoods around the church and gave out invitations to a free movie. We showed some music videos especially for kids to start off till the appointed time when we showed a cartoon version of a Bible story, about 20 to 30 minutes in length. About 80 kids showed up. They got a bag of popcorn to eat during the movie. At the end of the movie, we told them to go home and hug their mom and dad and tell them that they love them and then gave them a cup of juice and a balloon as they left.

Saturday, July 26, we did basically the same thing and had about 70 there. And this was even with the rain that came down! This time we showed the story of Noah and the ark and explained about the "barcas" on Thursday. Barca is the word for boat so it went well with the movie. We are hoping that they start coming on Thursday night. The idea is to reach the kids first then we can reach out to the moms and then to the dads.

The extension is in the middle of a number of very poor neighborhoods which we are trying to reach. It is on a street named Antigua Camino a Contreras, which means Old Road to Contreras. So we have named the church CCE el Camino, or Centro Cristiano Esperanza el Camino - Christian Hope Center the Way.