Becoming Baptist?

Our candle lit beach church service was canceled on Saturday so Danika and I decided to go to Church with Danika's self-described Grammy on Sunday morning.

We arrived in the simple yet beautiful stone Baptist Church just as the congregation joined the choir in singing the opening hymn.

I can honestly say that I was blown away by the sound coming from the Church..but not in a good way.

Every person in the congregation seemed to have their own idea about what pitch the song should be sung in, and how fast the song should go. Not one person was singing on key or on beat. And everyone seemed to be trying to "outsing" their neighbor, so the "singing" actually sounded more like shouting.

Shefina (Danika's Grammy) began pounding her hand loudly on the wooden pew to keep the beat for the congregation, but nothing seemed to help. Danika looked up at me with a confused look as she had never heard anything like that before and then began to babble loudly along with everyone else. I laughed in my head at the thought of God sitting in Heaven cringing at the sound of his faithful praising him.
The rest of the service played out more like a conversation between the reverend and the congregation as people commented out loud whenever the Spirit moved them.

Danika of course never stopped babbling loudly, and decided she was going to pull the hair of every single person within reach of her stubby little fingers.

After the service was completed various people from the congregation wandered over to see who these strange white people were with Shefina, although most already knew us from seeing us around the island.
Slowly Danika and I are integrating ourselves into the culture. We are becoming less like visitors and more like islanders.

I am grateful for every new experience that Danika and I encounter and learn from, though I can definitely say that next Saturday Night will find us back in West End as Catholics.