July 30
This morning I got ahold of Amanda, one of the other American girls (from NC) about going to church. We had found out about a nearby Baptist church and gotten directions for it, but we didn't know anyone to give us a ride. So, I took the printed map with me and we set out to to find the church by foot. We ended up following the directions exactly, which we found out later was longer than the shortcut we took on the way back. It was about a 35 minute walk to church, and we got there about 20 minutes before the second service started. We met three of the pastoral staff and several other members of the congregation before the service started. They all welcomed us, talked to us about our studies in Canberra, and even stated that they hoped we enjoyed the service, but to feel free to check out other churches in the area. It was nice how friendly the people were.
The service was pretty similar to the services back home at First Baptist in Wellsboro. There was contemporary worship, a some prayer and an offering, and then a sermon followed by a closing song. The pastor that spoke today was an older woman, and her official label is "Integration Pastor", as she primarily works on getting new people involved with the church. She gave a sermon about prayer. After the service was over, Amanda and I walked back the shorter way (only took about 30 minutes), then I was lazy the rest of the day, and did a little bit of homework in the afternoon.
In the evening Amanada and I again met to go check out another church, this time one done specificially for university (uni) students, called Unichurch. They typically have rides at 6:30 to pick people up from UC, as this church service is held at Australia National University as a service for all university students in Canberra. The normal ride had left by the time we got there (even though we got there at 6:25!), and we ended up getting a ride with a girl that was picking people up for a Christmas in July party that was part of the international unichurch group, also at ANU. We got to meet this girl (woops, I forget her name), and the two other girls she was picking up(woops, I forget their names too... but I remember one was from Mexico, one was from Vietnam). We crammed into the teeny weeny hatchback car that this girl had, and rode to ANU where we met up with the unichurch people.
Unichurch was very much like the earlier church service, only the worship band was all uni students, and the leader of the group was a younger guy (maybe getting close to 30?). There was probably between 100 and 200 students that attended the service, apparently consisting of a mix of Australians and international students from various continents around the world. It was a nice service, and it was nice hanging out with other students of a similar age after the service. They also had some free snacks at the end, which was a bonus that I really enjoyed. :-D One thing that I've noticed at both churches today, which is different from back home, is that people aren't in a hurry to leave church after the service is over. Back home, once the service is over, most people get up and start to leave. Here, once the service is over, a few people get up and start to leave, and the majority (at both the Baptist and Uni churches) just keep sitting there, and start to talk with the people nearby. I guess they're not as much in a hurry as people are in the U.S. :)
The service was pretty similar to the services back home at First Baptist in Wellsboro. There was contemporary worship, a some prayer and an offering, and then a sermon followed by a closing song. The pastor that spoke today was an older woman, and her official label is "Integration Pastor", as she primarily works on getting new people involved with the church. She gave a sermon about prayer. After the service was over, Amanda and I walked back the shorter way (only took about 30 minutes), then I was lazy the rest of the day, and did a little bit of homework in the afternoon.
In the evening Amanada and I again met to go check out another church, this time one done specificially for university (uni) students, called Unichurch. They typically have rides at 6:30 to pick people up from UC, as this church service is held at Australia National University as a service for all university students in Canberra. The normal ride had left by the time we got there (even though we got there at 6:25!), and we ended up getting a ride with a girl that was picking people up for a Christmas in July party that was part of the international unichurch group, also at ANU. We got to meet this girl (woops, I forget her name), and the two other girls she was picking up(woops, I forget their names too... but I remember one was from Mexico, one was from Vietnam). We crammed into the teeny weeny hatchback car that this girl had, and rode to ANU where we met up with the unichurch people.
Unichurch was very much like the earlier church service, only the worship band was all uni students, and the leader of the group was a younger guy (maybe getting close to 30?). There was probably between 100 and 200 students that attended the service, apparently consisting of a mix of Australians and international students from various continents around the world. It was a nice service, and it was nice hanging out with other students of a similar age after the service. They also had some free snacks at the end, which was a bonus that I really enjoyed. :-D One thing that I've noticed at both churches today, which is different from back home, is that people aren't in a hurry to leave church after the service is over. Back home, once the service is over, most people get up and start to leave. Here, once the service is over, a few people get up and start to leave, and the majority (at both the Baptist and Uni churches) just keep sitting there, and start to talk with the people nearby. I guess they're not as much in a hurry as people are in the U.S. :)
posted by itsbenrael at 12:58 PM
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