Church, So Far

A bit about church this one month into life here.   We have gone to church here for four Sundays now, always to a little church called Hillside Baptist.  It sounds "western", but in reality it is pretty much a Chinese church with also Malay, Indian, Korean, and Caucasian (about 4-5 couples/families) attendees.  I estimate there are about 150 - 200 people who attend.

The services are mostly in English, and the first Sunday there we heard a Brian Doerksen song.  (Maybe that was part of the reason we felt comfortable there right from the start :)  Sometimes there are songs in other languages (Bahasa, Korean).  I really enjoy the worship time, very contemporary with the odd hymn, drums, guitar(s), electric piano, singers.  The order of service is usually some worship, greeting others, worship, offering (you walk to the front to give and put the offering in a cloth bag held by someone), preaching (last week by a visiting Chinese woman going to seminary), then announcements (fairly prolonged) and a missionary. We learned yesterday that there is always a rotation of people who preach; perhaps one or other of the pastors will preach one or two Sundays in a month.  Part of the reason for this is because the pastors travel a lot and do evangelism or lead missions trips.  I like the order pretty much except it does make for a long service (first week:  2 and a half hours; second week: 2 and a bit hours; this week the same as the second week).

The girls leave just before the preaching as that is when they have Sunday School.  They seem to like the S.S. It looks like there are mid-week clubs for kids but I don't think we will have our kids be part of them, at least not this year.

The preaching is very encouraging and grounded in Scripture, a style not that much different than in N.A.  I just have to listen really hard because of the accents and sometimes there are sort of inside jokes to do with the culture or local events or things people know about that either we don't know about or need to try to figure out what the preacher is getting at.  There has been no controversial issues or topics that I have seen or heard.

The church is about a 10 minute walk from our house, through a rough field on gravel / dirt, (behind the guard's house), past some cows and chickens (watch where you step!) and then down a side street. (It is like a shortcut.)  Last week on our way home we saw two men there in the field looking like they were trying to catch birds in trees with some cages on poles that they were disguising with branches and leaves.  One of these weeks we may try another church for a change just to see what other churches are like, although this church I have described to you, I feel at this point, will be our home church, although it is still early to say,  But I really like it and everyone else does too.  Here is a picture of us walking home from church today.  The housing complex (although not our house) that we live in is on the right of the picture, sort of a peach colour.