St. Mark's Lutheran Church
We had an interesting experience today. There is a lady at church who Todd is assigned to Home Teach and I am assigned to Visit Teach. She doesn't come around too often. We try to call her every month to see if we can stop by, but she never answers her phone. We've dropped by unannounced, together and with our Home/Visiting Teaching companions, and she has only been home one time. So we talked to her once for like 5 minutes.
And then, her sister passed away unexpectedly.
The Bishopric of our ward asked us and our companions to help with the funeral. We arrived at the Lutheran church early, at the same time as the family. We asked if we could help with the programs, they told us to have a seat. So we sat there reading the program for 30 minutes... then figured out that we were here for the viewing, and the funeral didn't start for another hour.
Sooooo we sat there in the pews, just us and the family, for more than an hour. Let me set this scene for you: we are the only white kids in the building. Gospel music is playing, interspersed with music I swear is not appropriate for a funeral (Christina Aguilera). We never met the dearly departed, and can't even recognize the woman we're here to support among all her sisters. When we do figure out which one she is, she clearly doesn't recognize us at all.
The service finally started. It was sentimental, though I'm sure we weren't able to catch the full spirit of it because we didn't know anyone in the room. Then it got... loud.
Before today, we had never experienced a Southern black church service. I've gone to church every week all my life, but I have never heard anyone yell AMEN! HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD! HE IS FAITHFUL! OH YES HE IS! or GOD IS GOOD! during an LDS meeting. I've only ever seen people do such things in movies, and it's usually presented in an overblown, comical way. So my first instinct was to laugh (horrible!). But then it made me smile. People were voicing their joy at the prospect of being reunited with their loved one again through the grace of our Savior. I suppose testimonies can be loud, and sometimes that's perfectly okay.
And I liked the sermon the preacher gave as the eulogy-- he talked about God having a prepared place for prepared people. Good message.
I hope the lady from church felt our support. But I am glad we got to have a totally new experience. Sometimes it's good to be a fish out of water.
2 comments:
Welcome to the bible belt my friend :) I still have experiences like that when I'm caught off guard by the culture here in the south.
I commend you for your dedication in your home/visiting teaching :)
That exact same thing happened to me in Orlando. One of my coworkers was shot. (he was black). I went to his funeral in this little church and I was the only white person. And everyone was going CRAZY!! The weirdest thing was how horribly sad everyone was. Like ladies rolling on the floor bawling. I feel like our funerals are sad but so peaceful and hopeful.
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