DOWNEY, CA (June 14, 2010) – Members of El Encino Covenant worshiped God on Sunday, but they also had the chance to declare loyalties to their favorite teams playing in the World Cup.

Arguably the planet’s most widely watched sporting event is being played in South Africa through July 11.

Ed Delgado, president of Centro Hispanico de Estudios Teologicos (CHET), chose to wear the South Africa colors because he lived in the country at a time when history was made. Delgado, his wife, Lynda, and two children lived there in 1994, the year Nelson Mandela was elected to office.

He says choosing from among three other alternatives was too difficult. Delgado fell in love with Brazil while working there for eight years, his grandparents were born in Mexico, and one of Lynda’s grandfathers was born in Argentina.

During the service, congregants identified their countries of origin, which included the United States of America, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and  Costa Rica.

“This mosaic is really quite normal in most of our Hispanic churches, as it is normal at CHET where we most often have up to 17 countries and 17 denominational backgrounds represented,” Delgado says.