Namaste,

Last night we were able to attend the English service at BCH. It was unlike anything I have ever been too before, and yet everything was very recognizable.

The church service began at 6:00. When it first began, there weren’t really all that many people there. But if you could see the parking lot for this church you would never complain about BBC again. The number of people attempting to get here through the traffic is not an easy task. But as I sat on the platform I watched the entire bottom half of the sanctuary fill up. It was much like sitting in the choir loft at BBC and watching the sanctuary transform from a scattering to a full house by the end of our worship time.
The singing here is unbelievable. This picture is of the choir rehearsing before the service. Singing David here has an amazing voice, and he even sang a solo for us last night. The choir sings both hymns and praise and worship. They sang a beautiful version of My Tribute during the offering last night. I haven’t heard that song in a long time, and it was like comfort food.

The services here run 2 to 3 hours. It would definitely take our people some adjustment time to get used to. If they sing a hymn, they sing all the verses. If they sing a praise song, they may sing it several times more than we do.

Another difference was the prayer time. Prayer is a serious thing here, and we could learn a lot from that. These people don’t take the privilege lightly. Solomon prayed last night, and he was under no time constraints. He could just pray as the Spirit led him. It was beautiful.

What really got me, though, was when Pastor David began to prepare the congregation for the Lord’s Table. I have heard many times that you need to be sure you aren’t harboring any sin in your life before you take communion. But it’s usually pretty glossed over. Not last night. David basically preached a 3 or 4 point sermon on those who partake of the Lord’s table in an unworthy manner being guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ. It was powerful and so convicting. I truly did self-examine and confess before I took the cup and the bread. And it became much more meaningful to receive after truly remembering what it was Christ did for me and why this act is so symbolic.

After communion, the choir led the congregation in several praise and worship songs. It was so much fun to be a part of. Most of those songs had motions, and the entire congregation was doing them along with the choir. It cracks me up to try and imagine our church members doing these moves when we all sang together. But I would so love it.
Nelson was responsible for giving the message last night. Before we went on the platform, we were able to lay hands on him and cover him with prayer. It must have been so intimidating for him to get up and speak to that many people. But he spoke about when King David got old and one of his sons decided to take the throne away from Solomon. He talked about how Solomon was representative of the right thing, and how someone else deciding that they were just going to go there and do that was representative of a lie and a pretense that someone set up against God. One of the Scripture readings earlier had been 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, about how we are to put aside every argument and pretense and take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. He was able to work that into his message as well.

I know it was a really uncomfortable thing for him to do, and we were all really proud of him for getting through it so well. Tonight Jeremy will be speaking at a youth service, and I know that will be great as well.

As I write this, it’s 6:00 in the morning. I’ve been up for a really long time. Last night I didn’t take anything with any kind of sleep aid, so maybe my body has already gotten dependent on it. But instead of waking up at 5 or 5:30 like I have been, it was more like 3:45. We have a long car ride ahead of us this morning, so hopefully I can catch a nap on the way. I laugh to myself as I write that.

More later. Love to you all.