MOOSE JAW — Church of God is hosting its fourth annual Multicultural Worship Service this weekend, but the event nearly went silent before it even began after the sound company unexpectedly withdrew its equipment.
The event occur in the Town ‘n’ Country Mall’s southwest parking lot on Saturday, Aug. 17, from 4 to 8:30 p.m. Vendors will offer food — including authentic Mexican tacos and snow cones — while there will be several bands and speakers.
People are encouraged to bring a lawn chair, an umbrella, and a friend and enjoy the afternoon worshipping God.
Church of God is hosting the event in partnership with Iglesia de Dios Casa de Gloria (Church of God — House of Glory), its Hispanic-affiliated church plant at the South Hill campus that launched in 2021.
One band is from Saskatoon, a second is COG’s in-house English group, a third is from the COG’s Spanish affiliate, a fourth is a Nigerian group comprised of Moose Javians and Reginans, while a fifth is a group from British Columbia, explained Giovana Garcia, the event co-ordinator.
“It’s really exciting and it’s really cool that we are able to offer this to the community, just to have something different,” she said. “In the past, one of the comments has been, ‘We’ve never heard another language singing worship music,’ so it’s been really cool to get that feedback.”
Besides bands, there will be several speakers from different churches in Moose Jaw — such as Pastor Marvin Garcia from Iglesia de Dios Casa de Gloria — giving short motivational talks, particularly about how good God is, the event co-ordinator added.
Garcia chuckled, saying there is plenty of work involved in planning an event of this size. However, she and other committee members feel blessed and fortunate with the support they receive, particularly from the mall. That organization “has been absolutely the best” to work with during the past four years since it has provided resources and advertising.
“There’s a lot that goes into it, for sure, and it gets very costly, but God pulls through every year,” she said. “We are a very small church (as) we have about five (or) 10 members on a good Sunday at our church.”
While the church has a small in-person congregation, it connects to roughly 15,000 through Facebook every week, with the broadcast reaching people in Guatemala, El Salvador, the U.S. and Canada.
“So, the funds don’t really come in quite a bit, but God has just been so faithful, and He provides every time,” Garcia continued. “And every year, we’re just left amazed with how many things get donated and how many people are willing to help out for the event.
“It’s a lot of work and it’s kind of stressful, but it is rewarding in the end.”
This is the fourth year that Garcia has helped organize the Multicultural Worship Service, and it has slowly become easier to put together. She noted that she usually contacts the same people to inform them that COG plans to host the event, and everything nicely falls into place — usually.
There are some years when bands or speakers have to drop out at the last minute, so she has to find a replacement quickly.
“Planning events depends on the person and the month. We had our sound system that we had rented fall through last week and we were freaking out because you kind of need that to run a concert,” Garcia chuckled. “We were scrambling to find a replacement — and we found one, thank the Lord. So there’s never a dull moment.”
Garcia encouraged residents to attend the concert and enjoy a fun, God-filled evening.
