The Friendliest Church Around

So what would you do if everyone at your church was off at church camp out and your mom was constantly worried that you weren’t getting enough social interaction?

Go along to church camp out, probably. But what if that wasn’t an option? What if you knew that it would be too much for you, and that you would have lots of trouble finding food to eat? What if you had gone, for one evening, but felt terrible, presumably because it was much wetter there, aka, there was much more mold hiding in the corners waiting to pounce?

When it happened to me last Saturday, my mom called me on the phone. “You really should just pick a random church and go to it tomorrow,” she said.

What?

It was a crazy idea. Why would I go to a random church? But as the idea bounced around in my head I found it more and more intriguing. So took a scooter ride, found a beautiful old church (turns out it was about 142 years old or so) and decided, that’s where I’m gonna go tomorrow. They had some sort of modern service in the early morning, then Sunday school at 10:00, and the traditional service at 11:00. Fine. I can make it by 11:00.

The next morning I got up, put on a bright yellow skirt, and was out the door around 10:30. I didn’t want to be late. And the church was on the other side of town.

Halfway there I all of the sudden realized I had forgotten to put my veil on.

I looked at my cell phone. It was 10:40.

I could just not wear a covering. Who would ever know? Or I could just wear my helmet. Would it really look that silly? Or I could just go home.

So I went home.

But no, I couldn’t just let it beat me like that! I decided I was going to go to that church whether I was late or not. So I raced home as fast as I could go (20 mph), grabbed my covering, clipped it to my head, and zoomed off again, not even taking the time to wave to my landlord who was putting up a clothesline for me. I took roads instead of parking lots even though I felt sorry for the people behind me. And when I got to the church an old lady was going just going in, so I figured I couldn’t be too late.

I walked in, and what do you know. There was no a single person there under fifty.

Still, the nice old ladies really seemed to take a liking to me. They introduced themselves and told me all about the stained glass windows.

Then I sat down, and after chatting a bit with the lady beside me, the service started.

After a little while it occurred to me that perhaps I hadn’t gotten in as late as I thought I had. So I looked at my cell phone, and it was 11:04. How I managed to get there so quickly I have no idea.

After church I was invited into the fellowship hall, where I ate snacks and chatted with everyone. Oh they were funny. This one guy, who said he was around 70, was talking about this band that his Mom was in where they play odd instruments, such as a washboard scratched with a plastic back scratcher. “They don’t have very many guys in their band, though,” he said, “Mom keeps telling me to join and I keep telling her I’m not old enough.”

Wow did we laugh at that one!

They seemed very interested to know about my West Nile. A lot of them said they shopped at the New Horizons Thrift store, and it turns out that the Pastor lived only a couple houses down from me before I moved last week.

All in all I had such a fun time. “We’re the friendliest church around,” said one lady, and then, turning to another old lady, “wouldn’t you say we’re the friendliest church?”

“Oh yes,” said the other lady, “we’re the friendliest church around!”