Sunday, September 9, 2007

Church

We went to a church today. It was nice, an English service at a local Methodist Church called Centenary Methodist English Church. Since this is the monsoon season there was water cascading down the walls during the service from the rain outside. One of the ushers slipped in the water and hit the floor pretty hard due to the puddles. The floors are almost always marble in India, so it was a strong hit.

During the service the young people of the church came out and sang a few songs of contemporary Christian music. I knew the songs, and Liam and Aidan know the songs from Brookwoods. It was amazing that they were singing these songs, I underestimated the reach of this genre. What was also amazing was that the young fellow playing the electric guitar was standing in a puddle. Tara and I were nervous....

At one point during the service the pastor was pointing at us and, we believe, asking us to stand up and introduce ourselves. Since the sound system was not very good, and the pastor had a thick accent, we stood looking right at him as he repeatedly asked us to introduce ourselves. Once we got it, I stood up and greeted everyone and introduced the family...

I don't want to make it sound like it wasn't nice to be there. It was really nice to be at a place with other Christians and enjoying a service. Also, it was nice to sing. They definitely belt out a tune in church here, the 50 people in the church were louder than I am used to hearing the 200 from Selwyn Presbyterian, where the weight of the melodies is carried by the fantastic chor (hi everyone reading the blog from the choir!).

Overall, a great time and an uplifting and interesting service. We'll keep looking, though.