Steinbox

Before I left for Chennai, I got contact information for a church of the same denomination that we go to at home, from Jess’ cousin Ben Scripture who has been a guest speaker in India many times.

I called Dr. Joy David, a leader of the church, got the address, ascertained that church was from 9-12:30, and that the church hall was located on the second floor of the doctor’s residence. A couple of co-workers kindly wrote a map to the church in both Tamil and English so that both my driver and I could understand. On Sunday I left at 8:10 to be sure that traffic would not hinder my being on time. I arrived at 8:27, a little earlier than I had hoped or expected. I was greeted by Mrs. Joy David, who welcomed me in and also let me know that church wouldn’t start until 9:30 (I must have gotten it wrong over the phone). I am glad I learned to drink tea before I came to India so that I was able to accept Mrs David’s offer. Her tea was the best I have ever had.

I waited about 40 minutes while people trickled in. It was then that Raju Abraham, who was leading the church in the doctor’s absence, showed up. Everyone was glad to have me there, as most other churches I have attended. At this one, however, I was asked to speak. Raju gave me a variety of options.

Both our churches observe a remembrance service weekly where hymns are sung, people lead prayer, and thoughts remembering our Lord Jesus are shared. At the end of the service communion is taken. I tried to express that it was rather uncommon for me to speak at my own church, even during the open forum of the remembrance service, and that perhaps it was because I was overly shy. This by no means dissuaded Raju’s kind encouragement. Raju offered for me to speak for 10 or 15 minutes before breaking of bread, and I reluctantly agreed. I was concerned that I was going to embarrass myself. However, I decided that if I was going to embarrass myself, halfway around the world seemed like a good location for it.

Breaking of bread in my church is intermingled with prayer, singing, and sharing all at the leading of men. The women are silent during services except for the singing (Women’s roles are a very hot topic in my church, with members of both genders on either side of a given argument). At the church I was visiting, men and women sat separately. Most everyone sits on the floor including the musicians. Singing is chosen and directed by a song leader. Prayer, singing, and speaking follow a set order rather than being intermingled as they are at home. The prayer section includes prayer led by both men and women. The speaking is done by just one designated person. This week that person was me.

I had prepared a little while I was waiting for the service to start. I was also given a translator since my american accent may have been difficult for the audience to understand. I thought I did pretty badly. My remarks took about half the 15 minutes allowed. When I returned to my seat I was comforted by 1 Corinthians 1:27 “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong“

My church in America is one of the few denominations which encourages women to wear headcoverings to church services, and is widely debated. I point out the practice because all the women in this church wore head coverings and the majority of them simply used the end of their sari that drapes off their shoulder to cover their head.
I would also like to point out that remembrance service at this new church was entirely centered on worship, which is appropriate. My home church is not as centered on worship and often focuses on ourselves as we relate to Jesus rather than Jesus himself.

After the remembrance service was a time of teaching. My translator was the speaker for this week. Not much differred in this portion from my regular church. The topic was discipleship, and I enjoyed the message, which was followed by a short break of about five minutes wherein the children where dismissed to a separate service. My home church has a break of thirty minutes.

The next session was a time of community prayer. Requests were shared by everyone (both men and women). My prayer requests were solicited, so I asked for a safe return to my family. We then broke into small groups, and I was paired with my translator yet again, who is a professor at a local college. He kindly explained all the requests to me and gave me a couple of general ones that I could easily pray for. After prayer we had a Bible quiz on Numbers (That’s a book of the Bible). It was an open Bible test, but even though I worked furiously, I only resulted in a score of about 75%. The winning score was a 96%. I kept the quiz and will be happy to share it upon request. This brought the morning’s organized services to an end.
At the end of the quiz I asked Raju if I could take his picture. He immediately turned it into a group shot:

When I went downstairs I asked for Mrs. Joy David’s picture, which also turned into a group shot:

Mrs. Joy David said that my driver had stopped by to say he would be a little late picking me up and to have lunch at the church, which I had previously tried to graciously turn down. I enjoyed a small lunch with them, and was soon on my way back to the Element K corporate apartment with my driver. Being at church was the most at home I had felt since coming to India.