Going to church…

David and I attended a local church last Sunday; catching a ride with someone we know who goes there. This is the closest church to us. The church bells rang at half-hour intervals before the service started. We parked out the front as people were filing in through the 3 doors. There were around 100 or so there, sitting in straight-backed wooden chairs in a long room. There were three pulpits, a large one in the centre near the back, and two smaller ones on either side for those doing readings are announcements. All of the men wore nice shirts and trousers, and nice shoes (not the usual flip-flops). The women were quite dressed up, some even in sequins and lace and most in heels (Heather needs to buy a pair of heels, she brought the wrong shoes!) Most people either had Bibles with the hymnal included in the back or a Bible and a hymn book. At the start of the service a loud brass band (trumpets and trombones) started playing on the balcony above us. Then a man up the front read out announcements/finance figures at a quick speed for about 10 minutes. After this the band started playing again and a lady minister in the black robes went up the huge pulpit up front. There was a big mural of a white Jesus on the wall behind her- he wasn't even a tan white, but a pinkish never-seen-the-sun white. She led a couple of songs, familiar tunes, (with the brass drowning out peoples voices), gave an enthusiastic sermon and said a really long prayer, most of which we couldn't understand (as it was all in Indonesian). In the middle of it all a choir, consisting of women in all black and men in black shirts over white shirts, sang something to the tune of "Jesus Loves Me." There were offering boxes at the entrance we went in, and two lots of offering bags (black and purple) were passed around and at one point in the service most people went forward to put money in a box up front. These seemed to be for different church ministries, with the box up front for a youth conference for eastern Indonesian churches being held there soon. At the conclusion of the service people shook hands with those around them and then everyone left, most people walking.

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Also, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We seem to have hit a bit of turbulence with Immigration in Australia.