3/09/08 - Second Visits (2)

Previously I had visited Macedonia Church with the whole QMA group, and I returned again today to see Ms. Annette Webb (picture with me, my wife, and Ms. Webb). We had visited there as a group before, and inbetween their services, Reverend Nicholas had come to listen to our projects.

Since I have never been involved in church programs, I was totally amazed how
their services are busy and tight. Today, I went there before the morning service
ended, I participated in their service just 20 minutes or so. Maybe because I like
gospel songs and participated in choirs at school in New Orleans, it came into my body smoothly. On both sides of me of older African American gentlemen held my hands
together and repeated some phrases. My English is still not good enough in this kind
of case, but heard "Use your time wisely..." It was quite a nice service and I felt embraced
even if it was just for a short time. They nicely explained their time of service and invited me
to return next time. You may say that is always the case no matter which religious organizations we visit, but it had no undertone of forcefulness as some do. That was quite nice.

After the service, one of our participating artists Tattfoo Tan, handed out his
prayers stickers. Many church members nicely and seriously wrote their prayers on them and and returned the stickers to him. When I looked at today's service program handout, they announced it as "Prayer Request As Art." Very nice organization.

Later, Ms. Annette Webb, Director of Christian Education at the church told me how busy they are and how all the Sunday programs were full for the coming one to two months. However, she does not want to uninvite anyone and would love to participate in any way that they can.
Since my project requires little bit more organizational effort, drawing inside church by people from both inside and outside of the church, it seems quite difficult to do around this Easter time.

In fact, today, right after this service, they planned on visiting and joining another church's
service so they were loading up a bus.

Since I did not know about such programs, I was completely amazed. Then I thought about how important this entity is for many people in this community.

Continues to (3)