So, I woke up and the sun was shining. This made it very difficult for me to say, yes, I will forgo the sunshine after a day of rain and go to church like a good kid. However, I had sent up a little prayer the day before saying that I was going to try to go to church—a bit of sunshine might be nice in exchange.
So, I woke Rachael up and we walked 30 minutes in the baking sun to church. It was a Christian church, the front of it was covered with graves (all of which are above ground here.) The service lasted about 1hr 45 minutes, and about 10% of it was in English. 8% of the English was during the offertory time. Imagine that?!
Anyhow the service was quite interesting. When we walked into the church, there was a man yelling from the back of the sanctuary to the front. What about? I couldn’t tell you. Then we were directed to the balcony seats. We tried to figure out why this was, as most of the white people were in the balcony, however there were also Maoris and some lighter skinned people were sitting down below. We thought perhaps it was members only on the main level. There were a couple hundred people in the church and three pastor type people.
The singing was loud and somewhat gospel like, except with more harmonies. There were many voice parts, a very unique Pacific Island blend that sounded—simultaneously as though they did not rehearse regularly, because they weren’t all together, but also that they had spent much time singing in eachothers company because of the close harmonies.
I couldn’t really tell you what the sermon was about…but there was a little 2 or 3 year old girl that took a liking to me and climbed into my lap during “the message.” There was also a bringing forth of children section. Almost like a baptism with kids ranging from 13 yrs to infants.
The preacher that delivered the sermon explained himself as being second in charge, but he was by far the best deliverer to his audience. It was quite an interesting experience—more cultural than religious but that’s what I was thinking it would be.
After church we were invited to the reception. We’re near broke and thus wont turn down any free food so we went to the building next door. It was almost all “visitors” and much to our dismay it was not a grab and go sort of deal. So we sat and listened to a prayer and talked to the people around us until we were allowed to grab a plate.
The treats were delicious! They had banana bread! I was in heaven. We also had papaya, coconut, banana and chocolate cake. Definitely the best church reception I’ve been to.
Afterwards we stopped at a little place to get groceries and then walked the rest of the way on the beach. Let me tell you, its not to shabby to walk through the surf in a sundress on a sunny Sunday morning.
We hurriedly put on our swimmers and went down to the beach. It was a hot day and we were on the beach till the sun went down. Rachael and I are determined to come back tan if nothing else.
In the evening I played cards and blisters with Craig and we all had noodle cups for dinner.
I got on the internet and sent messages to the most important people.
Rach and I in front of the church
My little friend during the sermon
Walking down the beach After Church
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