sundays
It continues to rain.
We've been here for three Sundays so far. The first one was spent volunteering at the home. After one week, however, we realized that we weren't really needed. There were plenty of extra Sisters on hand to help out and they had mass from 10-11 which, because we didn't attend, meant a lengthy break for us. Since we're only there from 8-12, we decided we were superfluous. As such we attended a Protestant church, the Assembly of God church, for the past two Sundays as per a recommendation from a friend, Josh Scholten.
Last week we thought the service entitled, "Fusion" sounded fun so we went to that one. Had we spent a nanosecond researching we would have realized that it was aptly named as it was a fusion between English and Hindi. Even still it was interesting to sing Hindi worship songs and it was good to hear the sermon in two languages.
Today we went to an earlier contemporary service that was only English. In both weeks we sang familiar songs; last week was mostly golden-oldies from Hillsong (from the Darlene Zschech era) like, "Power of Yoor Love". This week featured "God of This City" and "Cornerstone", among others.
I also took a trip down nostalgia lane as I perused their hymnal and was comforted by my childhood church norm. I grew up in a traditional, conservative, Christian Reformed Church where, often, hymns were commonplace. Although I didn't always love it then, periodically throughout adulthood this foundation has been anchoring. "O Worship the King All Glorious Above", "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty", "Sun of My Soul" (my dad's favourite), "My Jesus, I Love Thee" (my favourite) and a boatload of others. I only let myself look up to #150 because I needed to start listening instead of happily and nostalgically singing in my head. I did go through a section on hymns of the second coming and recognized none of them and found that interesting. The Easter section brought happy elementary school memories (yeah H.M.D.C.S.) of singing "Low in the Grave He Lay"; the beginning is so low that no elementary school boy can hope to sing but then it's like a jack-in-the-box when the song changes tempo and overall feel as you burst out, "up from the grave he arose!". It was such a thrilling song! My grade three teacher, Mrs. Okkema, loved to play it on the piano for us!
Back to the service: I always find international churches fascinating because I have this silly idea that only English North Americans do church this way. I know this isn't the case, but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't my subconscious default.
Four years ago while in India I struggled with the emptiness and hopelessness of this country. I sense an almost overwhelming darkness given the pervasive, but hopeless, religiosity. Rituals, sacrifices, routine and guilt prevail. It all seems meaningless and relies too much on human acts. It was refreshing to visit a church that believes that Jesus is the way; no acts, sacrifices or gifts to spiritual creatures are necessary. We don't ever need to be in a certain place, at a certain time, doing a certain thing. When we sin there is nothing we can do to remove it. For the first time in two trips to this country I was reminded that there is nothing so bad that I can do to remove any of Christ's love for me AND there is nothing so good that I can do to get more of His love, either. Rituals are meaningless. I am happy with this Sunday change; it is good for my soul.
We've been here for three Sundays so far. The first one was spent volunteering at the home. After one week, however, we realized that we weren't really needed. There were plenty of extra Sisters on hand to help out and they had mass from 10-11 which, because we didn't attend, meant a lengthy break for us. Since we're only there from 8-12, we decided we were superfluous. As such we attended a Protestant church, the Assembly of God church, for the past two Sundays as per a recommendation from a friend, Josh Scholten.
Last week we thought the service entitled, "Fusion" sounded fun so we went to that one. Had we spent a nanosecond researching we would have realized that it was aptly named as it was a fusion between English and Hindi. Even still it was interesting to sing Hindi worship songs and it was good to hear the sermon in two languages.
Today we went to an earlier contemporary service that was only English. In both weeks we sang familiar songs; last week was mostly golden-oldies from Hillsong (from the Darlene Zschech era) like, "Power of Yoor Love". This week featured "God of This City" and "Cornerstone", among others.
I also took a trip down nostalgia lane as I perused their hymnal and was comforted by my childhood church norm. I grew up in a traditional, conservative, Christian Reformed Church where, often, hymns were commonplace. Although I didn't always love it then, periodically throughout adulthood this foundation has been anchoring. "O Worship the King All Glorious Above", "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty", "Sun of My Soul" (my dad's favourite), "My Jesus, I Love Thee" (my favourite) and a boatload of others. I only let myself look up to #150 because I needed to start listening instead of happily and nostalgically singing in my head. I did go through a section on hymns of the second coming and recognized none of them and found that interesting. The Easter section brought happy elementary school memories (yeah H.M.D.C.S.) of singing "Low in the Grave He Lay"; the beginning is so low that no elementary school boy can hope to sing but then it's like a jack-in-the-box when the song changes tempo and overall feel as you burst out, "up from the grave he arose!". It was such a thrilling song! My grade three teacher, Mrs. Okkema, loved to play it on the piano for us!
Back to the service: I always find international churches fascinating because I have this silly idea that only English North Americans do church this way. I know this isn't the case, but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't my subconscious default.
Four years ago while in India I struggled with the emptiness and hopelessness of this country. I sense an almost overwhelming darkness given the pervasive, but hopeless, religiosity. Rituals, sacrifices, routine and guilt prevail. It all seems meaningless and relies too much on human acts. It was refreshing to visit a church that believes that Jesus is the way; no acts, sacrifices or gifts to spiritual creatures are necessary. We don't ever need to be in a certain place, at a certain time, doing a certain thing. When we sin there is nothing we can do to remove it. For the first time in two trips to this country I was reminded that there is nothing so bad that I can do to remove any of Christ's love for me AND there is nothing so good that I can do to get more of His love, either. Rituals are meaningless. I am happy with this Sunday change; it is good for my soul.
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