Jun. 2, 2009 - Visiting the River Brethren: A brief trip becomes a very long blog entry
Sunday we made a rare trip outside our little bubble here, and headed for Chambersburg, where a friend of mine lives. She and her family had visted us several times and we felt it it was our turn to make the drive. And what a lovely drive, early Sunday morning, hardly any traffic, over the mountains in early spring. It took 2.5 hours, and the boys did so well. We had crammed them into our little Nissan because the van wasn't working properly, but there was only a little complaining towards the end of the trip.
The plan was to meet our friends at their church service. Three River Brethren congregations were meeting together for a 5th Sunday "Love Feast", so the service was held on a farm, in a barn. In spite of the service being vastly different from what we're used to, it was wonderful and I dare say refreshing. I was so worried that my children would misbehave and not be able to sit through the service, but they were just fine. I am firmly convinced now that children take their cues from other children and from the adults around. It's no wonder that our kids have trouble sitting still during a noisy, high-energy service. But for some reason it was no trouble for them to sit through 2+ hours of the River Brethren's service. Perhaps the novelty of being in a barn had something to do with it. Quite a few of the church's children arrived at church barefoot, there were sparrows flying around in the rafters, and the occasional scrappy-looking barn-cat wandering through as well, so plenty to look at. The service included a testimony time, 2 different preachers, 3 seperate on-your-knees prayer times, more testimony time, and a lot of singing. The preaching was on Pentecost, of course, and the Holy Spirit's impact on our lives. It might have been from men in black suits and long beards, but it was impassioned, heartfelt, and wonderful!
One interesting thing about the service that Josiah and I both noticed was that even though the seating was gender-segregated, the men's side had just as many infants and children as the women's side. There was even a "Men's Nursery" set up (seperate from the lady's nursery, naturally) in case a daddy needed to take a child out for a diaper change. In that particular church, it seems that the father's are more involved even than many men who would consider themselves more educated and egalitarian. I mentioned this to my friend and she laughed and said "Well, when you have that many children, the mom's can't do it all!". Isn't that interesting? A strict, conservative church which places a great deal of emphasis on gender roles and traditional lifestyle...and yet the dads are expected to be involved parents, and loving, tender parents at that. The whole attitude towards children was also very down-to-earth and lovely. Nobody shoots daggers from their eyes when your baby babbles or giggles. If anybody turns their head to look at you struggling with a fussy baby, it's with a sympathetic smile. Normal baby and toddler noises are completely ignored (or occasionally chuckled at), and you are safe from uptight ushers who in other churches might insist you leave lest you disturb all those spiritual people with your noisy child.
After the service the barn "church" was quickly turned into a "dining hall", and we sat down to lunch together. Many people remembered me from 10 years ago (I was 16!) when I had gone to their Youth Retreats, or from 6 years ago when Josiah and I were at a wedding out there. Everybody was so open, and so friendly. For me it was wonderful to be in a place where people could wholly accept me even with our differences. There is no pressure to join their church, no judgement of where we are spiritually, no looking down noses or sideways glances. I have told my friend very bluntly that Josiah and I are both leery of churches with strict rules and regs due to our own experiences, and she understands. She has been a faithful friend all these years anyway. Josiah and the children turned some heads, being the only brown people in the group, but the children soon made friends, and Josiah quickly found plenty of people to chat with. He was most impressed with the young people and said several times he could hardly believe such teenagers could exist in America. They were attentive in the service, as quietly friendly as their parents, and when we got our car stuck in the field/parking lot, a bunch of boys came hurrying to help us out. When Josiah thanked them their response was "Oh, no trouble, that was fun!". Where we live now, you wouldn't want a bunch of teenage males to approach your stuck car...you'd be dialing for help, more likely.
The only downside in the whole thing was that I wore the wrong skirt. I'd picked it for it's muted colors, length, and fullness, trying to be very respectful of the church's dress code. Well... as it happened, Sunday was a very windy day and my skirt was very light and I spent a good deal of time trying to hold the stupid thing down. Those smart River Brethren ladies were wearing skirts not quite so full, and heavier gauge material, but they graciously chuckled with me over the unhappy combination of wind and flapping skirts.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at our friend's farm. They have a beautiful, huge old farm house that has been in the family several generations, and a small dairy. It's beautifully kept, of course. Josiah and my friend's husband walked the property and visited his dad down the road, the children played happily and my friend and I watched them and had a nice chat. Josiah didn't want to stay for supper as he wanted to get home before dark, but we got a tour of the farm before we left. They fed us strawberry shortcake before our departure, though, and they sent us away with 4 dozen eggs fresh from their own chickens, and some of that morning's milk. Asrat also came away with a black eye after falling on his face on their concrete walkway, but otherwise the whole trip was surprisingly uneventful.
Comments
Jun. 2, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
that sounds heavenly! What a wonderful trip! Except the black eye...although I bet he's proud of that...=P
Sandy
Jun. 3, 2009 - W.O.F. again....
Posted by Anonymous
I envy you! I want to go visit my old church that was very similar to what you just described this service as being!
Okay..envy might be the wrong word...but your description made me long for them again....and miss them more than ever.
