Church Church All day!

Sunday June 7, 2009

Last night I stayed up reading a book called Showdown by Ted Dekker. It’s a pretty strange book. Fell asleep around 10, but had a fitful night of sleep. I am not fully on the correct sleep schedule yet!

First church was at 9:15. I knew that the pastor was going to introduce me to the congregation and I thought that maybe he would invite me to say something, but during the service he asked me a lot of questions about my schooling, my internship, and my family. All went well. There is no adult Sunday school or Bible study, but there is a time of tea, coffee, and fellowship between services. That was my chance to talk to members of the congregation. From what I have witnessed of today, the congregation is predominately older with only about a dozen younger families with children.

Something that I have noticed today is that I must have an accent. I know at home there are some words that I guess I say that have a Texas draw to it, but I never considered myself to have an accent. I had numerous people come up to me today and tell me that they like my accent, or how would I define my accent. I really wasn’t sure how to respond to these comments. How would you have responded?

Second service started at 11 and there were probably no more than 45 in attendance. Second service is led by mostly lay people and is traditional in style, but I was more familiar with the songs.

After church Jeff, Rosemary and I stopped at a fish and chips shop to get some lunch. For those of you who don’t know, fish and chips is fried fish and French fries. It is wrapped in paper and you take it home. We also ordered potato cakes as well. Its all fried food and very yummy! Rosemary had a special dipping sauce that she made which was a combination of sour cream and sweet pepper sauce. Different, but yummy. Usually vinegar is poured on the fish, but that really wasn’t my style. Authentic fish and chips are really fun! All throughout lunch and afterwards I talked to Rosemary about the differences in Australian words and American words. Some of my favorite are below:

Australian: cholk a block American: I am full/satisfied

Australian: capsicums American: Red pepper

Australian: napkin American: diaper

Australian: Doona American: Comforter

It was good talk. I enjoyed myself and I think Rosemary did too. While we were talking, Jeff read the Sunday newspaper.

For dinner we had soup, English crumpet, and salad. The next church service was at 6:30, but Jeff had to be there early because he was on to preach.

Today was Trinity Sunday, and the morning services were all about the Trinity. The main message from the sermon was that we can’t know the Trinity, so shouldn’t worry about trying to explain it, but should just immerse ourselves in it. The evening service used the same scripture as the morning service, but focused more on Niccademus and being born again. There was about 4 children in the evening service and they were so distracting. They kept running up and down the aisles, on the alter, around the communion and candles, and I had a hard time paying attention. The parents didn’t do anything about it. I have talked to Jeff about this and he doesn’t like it either. Oh well. Every church is different!

One last thing – my hair dryer died today. I don’t think that it blew up or anything, but it won’t work. It worked Friday and Saturday, plugging it in to the adapter and converter, but today nothing. So I had to throw it out. My hair was a bit stringy and flat today. Rosemary said that she needed a hairdryer anyways, so she bought one for herself to share with me. She is such a sweet kind lady.

Queen’s birthday tomorrow. Wonder what I’ll get into next?