Field trip report and observations

Mythology-Religion

The church experience

It's Sunday morning, the weekend is coming to an end. The rays of sunshine are beaming through the cream curtains of my bedroom. The light, I need to get out of bed and prepare for church I mumbled. This day brings with it its own challenges. I get really confused while choosing the dress to put on while going to church but thanks to my adorable sister Winfred, for today I already know what to wear, my green summer dress.

It is 10.15am, time to leave the house; I can already hear my brother Tim hooting, he gets really impatient sometimes. We all jump into the car and he drives off. There is total silence inside the car; I could hear the sound of food digesting inside my sister's abdomen, a great breakfast we had, her digestive system was busy at work. 'Please turn on the radio, am feeling the Lords spirit today', Helen said in a soft husky voice. I turned on the radio, 'I love Cece Winans 'Helen shouted. 'Count on me' was the song on the radio. Tim on the other hand never uttered a single word, he only made some weird facial expressions that one could not understand nor guess what he was thinking.

I got to a light at the gate of the church as the rest took off to the other church in town. At the entrance, stands the guard with a wide beaming smile on his youthful face. 'Good morning young lady, welcome' he said. I responded with a smile as I walked towards the church, the hall where the service takes place. The building is still intact, looks old though, the exterior of the worship facility reminds me of high school, the Sunday service, I felt some sense of belonging here.

The service has already begun; the worship team is playing the music instruments beautifully as the church sings 'Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest'. As the church continues to sing along, I opened up the booklet containing the day's program that was given to me by a young lady as I entered. The service actually began at 10.40am. I was right on time. About 4 songs had already been sang when the pastor, Meredith stood at the pulpit and gave a word from the book of Ephesians and then urged the congregation to praise and worship in truth and in spirit. After about 10 minutes we were asked to sit after ending the praise and worship session with a word of prayer.

A lady named Marta then stands up and gives a testimony on how the lord has healed and blessed her. The church is almost moved to tears. As Matthew plays the guitar as he sings the song 'Jesus take the wheel' the basket for offering is handed to me by the man sited next to me. I got so engrossed to the music being played, I hurriedly opened my purse and gave out my offering and passed the basket. The worship team sang another song and prayers were made for the tithe and offering that had been collected.

Doug stood up with confidence and asked the congregation to give a round of applause to the worship team. That was a great job indeed he exclaimed. He began to preach by giving a story of a young boy and his grandfather. The young boy asked his grandfather 'papi, did God make your face with all these wrinkles? 'Yes he did' the grandfather replied. Have you noticed something papi. What son? He is getting better each time. There was a huge uproar of laughter. That was a good joke, I thought. Doug then proceeded with the word on the power of forgiveness.

He went on and preached the way forgiveness can make you experience great peace in life and the way if one does not forgive the person, who wronged them, they take the power out of them, it's like letting someone live in your head rent free. That is not a great experience. He urged the congregation to learn to forgive the way Jesus did. As the sermon came to an end an hour had already lapsed. In the background the song my redeemer lives was being sang as Darrel played the piano. The feeling of peace, warmth and love could evidently be felt in the congregation as the song was sung. I found myself singing along as Doug prayed for blessings to befall each and every person standing. Thereafter, we all recited the grace.