After a long and busy week, we were thankful for a day to sleep a bit longer than normal. We gathered for breakfast at 8:30. We sipped coffee and ate the delicious food that Monica and Valerie made for us.
We would, in groups of three, go visiting various churches in the area. Each church has members with family backgrounds in countries other than the United States, and their services are conducted in languages other than English. Some went to a Chinese church, some went to an Indonesia church, and some went to Spanish and Taiwanese churches.
Jaran, Sara, and Jonathan went to Iglesia Evangelica Cristo es La Luz which lies just off Corona Avenue at the corner of 90th Street and 48th Avenue. They entered the front door a few minutes before the posted starting time, but the service was already underway. As they were ushered to their seat, they were quickly warmly welcomed by several members who got out of their seats to come welcome them. The entire service was held in Spanish, so following along required extra attention. As the service moved from songs, to prayer, to a sermon, they tried to join in. They were able to deduce that the sermon was based on John 15 and several other passages and centered around God’s love for us and our love for each other. After the service, many approached to offer their welcome and to invite them to stay for coffee. When they went to the basement for coffee, they were surprised to learn that, in addition to coffee, they were offered conversation over a meal of rice, beans, avocados, cake, and pastries.
The three other groups had good reports of hospitality and worship, through the upbeat and spontaneous services at the Indonesian and Mandarin churches and the tight structure and formality at the Reformed Taiwanese church.
When the groups returned to the Center, we spent time sharing our experiences, most of which were overwhelmingly positive. We can learn much from the hospitality and warmth that the churches we visited extend to the strangers in their midst.
For the afternoon, we parted ways to spend the afternoon in contemplation and prayer. Some stayed at the Center, and some went to various parts of the city to find places to sit alone with God.
After we regrouped at supper, Jesse split into two teams: anthropologists and people of an unknown culture. The anthropologists were given the challenging task of learning how to effectively communicate with a new culture. This activity abounded with perplexed looks and much laughter and reminded us to suspend judgement and communicate with curiosity and graciousness when engaging with people of a culture that we don’t understand.
As happens every evening, laptops are pulled out to journal about the day.
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