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Subject: Living together

Dear friends and family,

Sabbath has just begun here in China. Darleen and I sang a couple of songs and then took another look at the SS lesson. I was particularly attracted to the challenge of Ephesians 3:10. Think of it God wants to demonstrate to the world and the universe what His power can do to transform human lives!!! He is calling us to relate to one another and others in ways that demonstrate that we love others as we love ourselves. I suspect that this will not be evident to the world around us until we are as involved with our church family as we are with those living in our own household. This requires time together ­ much more than 1 ­ 2 hours Sabbath morning.

It is kind of special being a half a world away from our dear ones especially since we have such ready communication by e-mail. Kathy mentioned in one of her notes that we probably are better informed about their family’s activities than we would be if we were at home. As it turns out we are even privileged to learn about our niece’s activities who lives in Hawaii. Her recent e-mail to the family I think has something to say to us about living as bothers and sisters in Christ. So I hope she doesn’t mind my sharing it with you just the way she wrote it. I quote -

This morning we went to the Samoa-Tokelau 7th-day Adventist church in Kalihi, about ½ a mile away from where we live. Karl found it in his walking around but didn’t realize it was a church at first because it looks kind of like an apartment building. We thought it would be an experience ­ we were right. It was a bit like stepping into a Mission Spotlight production.

We got there just as everybody stood up to sing the opening hymn, What a Friend We have in Jesus. The piano and organ were blasting away, but the choir and congregation were even louder. Everyone sang with great exuberance! Good thing it was a song we knew. We sang along in English and nobody seemed to notice.

The men had on dress shirts with ties, skirts (lavalava) and sandals. The man who turned out to be the head pastor was dressed all in white, and the deacons and choir members were all in white shirts and black skirts (women) and lavalava (men). Many of the women in the congregation were dressed in very colorful longish skirts and matching short-sleeve blouses.

As we slipped into a pew, one of the deacons followed us and announced he was our interpreter. So we put him between the two of us and settled in for the service, which followed a traditional 7 order of service. After the choir finished singing the anthem, a man in the congregation stood up and said something, the pastor responded, and the choir launched into the song again, this time even more enthusiastically than the first time around. Our interpreter explained that the man, who is ordinarily a choir member, had suffered a stroke and this was his first Sabbath back, so when he wanted to hear the song again, they sang it.

The church was built to catch the lovely trade winds and it was very pleasant. I don’t think that has anything to do with feng shui, but it was very nice.

The kid’s story was in English. Evidently the kids don’t know Samoan as well as they do English, but our interpreter said they are learning. The story was about the importance of focusing on learning what you’re being taught in school and having Jesus for a friend.

Then two little boys dressed in white shirts and lavalava sang two songs in English. They were very at home with the mics in front of the crowd, but they couldn’t quite hit the right notes. Never mind, everybody loved them. Then two older girls sang another song and the pastor got up to speak. It was a very short sermon and he spoke half in Samoan and half in English, so our interpreter didn’t have too much to do.

About this time, I noticed that the woman in the row ahead of us is a security guard for our condo building. And it turns out that she’s the sister of our interpreter. . .Everybody sing along. . . It’s a small world after all. . .

Before the closing hymn the choir came back up to sing the anthem for a third time. This time the man who had had a stroke got up and sang with them. This was followed by the closing hymn, Blessed Assurance, which we sang again in English. The pastor kind of shouted out a couple of the verses as part of his sermon and everybody shouted along to the chorus with the piano (which seemed to only be played at full volume) and the organ taking it up a notch.

Of course, we were invited for potluck and found ourselves herded downstairs where long rows of saw-horse tables were set up in the parking lot. There was a head table loaded with food, and we were assured it was all vegetarian (more on that in a moment). This table was reserved for visitors and the pastor and his wife. There was another visitor, Jerome, who was Samoan, also at the head table.

We had plates of breadfruit, bowls of cooked taro leaves with coconut milk, huge plates of some sort of fried fake meat, rice noodles, avocado pieces, some sort of entrée with mushroom soup, and platters of bananas for desert. A young boy fanned the food to keep the flies away as we ate. Clearly he had been pre-fed. But the most wonderful part was when we each had a coconut with a small hole in the top placed before us for our beverage! It was cool and very, very refreshing. It was a fantastic feast, and the pastor and his wife wonderful conversationalists. Their daughters dropped by and we talked with them some as well. Both are quite accomplished musicians. We learned from one of them that the pastor has insisted that the potlucks be vegetarian and it’s been a bit of a struggle because most Samoans at least eat fish.

The entire meal was accomplished with incredible efficiency. Church is pretty much an all day function with Adventurers, Pathfinders, and so on. The elders were on their way out to visit people who couldn’t make it to church, and plates of food were prepared for people in the hospital.

With thanks to all, we took our leave and strolled home.

So with that we wish you all a happy Sabbath. Paul and Darleen