Born again

It’s Sunday here, and today I was invited to attend church by one of my students. While most Filipinos are Catholic, but Jundie, the student who invited me is Born Again. I’ve been to several masses here, so I was interested to see how a Born Again Christian service would be like here. Well, it was different.

First, I had to ask directions to the church from about 12 different people, because nobody knew where the church was. I think this just shows how the majority of residents here are Catholic. If I asked where the cathedral was, they’d all think I was crazy because it’s at the center of town. Eventually I got there, and I’ve got to say, it was a new experience.

The church was probably 30 feet long and 15 feet wide, made of bamboo. They had electricity, and even had an old drum set, keyboard, and electric guitar. Jundie played the guitar. It was pretty much all spoken in Cebuano, so I read my Bible during the 2 ½ hour service. I didn’t know it would be that long.

The other attendants were very excited to have a visitor. I had to go up to the front in the beginning and introduce myself. That in itself wasn’t that strange for me, I’ve probably had to introduce myself to large groups about 1,000 times so far. It was new though to have to come up at the end of the service and have the pastor put his hand on my head and pray for me. There was a lot of “amening,” and falling down going on during the service.

I guess it was similar to some churches in the states, just not what I’m personally used to. It was nice though to see people who worshiped so sincerely that they had tears in their eyes.