We have talked a lot about what kind of church we want to attend. Denomination is not top on our list as long as we agree with their beliefs. But what is really important is the type of people that attend. It is very important to us that Naomi is not the only Black person in the church. Last week there was one other Black person but they were an adult.
So when we saw Everett Community Church and that it claimed to be a "multi-ethnic church" we knew we had to try it.
It took us about 15 minutes to get there from our house. They started their church almost 1 year ago and share a building with the Baptist church. We were a bit early so they were still transitioning between the 2 churches. We recognized the Pastor, from his picture on the Internet, and went to introduce ourselves. We told him that we wanted to attend his church this morning and he seemed a bit surprised but gave us a very warm welcome. He has studied at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL and Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY.
The Pastor's wife took us under her wing and showed us where to bring Naomi. The older kids stay in the service during worship then go to their class. The Pastor and his wife are from Kenya and most of the congregation is from Africa. There were 2 other white women there besides us and everyone else was Black, I think that is why the Pastor was surprised. We had found what we were looking for.
The service was done in two languages: English and Swahili. The worship was beautiful and all in Swahili so we just clapped along and enjoyed the music. When the Pastor spoke, he spoke in English then someone translated into Swahili. There was a guest speaker this morning. He was powerful and preached the Word.
We were invited to stand up and introduce ourselves to the congregation. Darrick did a great job and everyone seemed excited that our daughter is from Africa. Many people came up to us after the service and welcomed us. They were shoving food and drink at us: a tea drink that was unfamiliar to us, African donuts and banana bread.
The boys liked their class and said they already made friends. It made us happy that the boys did not seem bothered that they were the only 2 white kids and they were running around playing with all the kids after church.
The Pastor and his wife kept talking about seeing us next week and taking us out to lunch. It was a great church so we have a lot to pray about. If this is where God wants us then we will follow!
3 comments:
How cool is that? I wonder if you'll end up with Everett as your church home.... I long for this for our adopted children too. I'm glad that your white children seemed comfortable. Don't you just love God's rainbow? :-D
This makes me want to visit this church too! Was the tea drink chai? With milk, sugar and maybe some spices? The donuts are called mandazis. :) What a great experience for all your kids.
Wow - what a contrast from last week... pray hard brother and sister
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