Mountain View Church

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Mountain View Church on the eastern edge of Spanish Lookout, close to San Marcos village.
   
Never ask a Mennonite from any of the modern churches about the Kleine Gemeinde church. Suddenly their expressions change, or they shrug their shoulders, or appear uninterested, or will begin to deride them, seemingly ignoring the fact that it was the Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites who founded Spanish Lookout and lost lives and limbs as they transformed a trackless jungle into a peaceful, prosperous, disciplined community for their descendants. Those descendants, while appreciating their forefathers’ toil and tears, now regard the “old” religion in contempt, the same religion which laid the cornerstone for the orderly community they now enjoy.
  Such was the case when I unthinkingly asked several individuals in Spanish Lookout regarding the new Kleine Gemeinde church building on Bee Avenue. I should have known better. Their replies were a mixture of scorn and derision. According to them, the Schoenthal congregation was dwindling fast. Only a few families were still attending, thereby creating the need for a smaller building. But certain elderly couples were unsettled by this, stubbornly refusing to abandon their old church building.
  I navigated my way out of that conversation then chatted with someone from the Kleine Gemende church. He explained that it was in a way part of the Schoenthal congregation. One church district now became two since a large part of that congregation lived towards the east. Both buildings host a good-sized crowd of attendants on Sundays, with the older much bigger building now being used more for conferences, funerals or other large gatherings.

Schoenthal Church on Center Avenue















A. Mendoza

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