Which 9am?

Unfortunately, breakfast at this particular conference centre is at the ungodly hour of 7am.  But on a Sunday morning, that just wasn’t happening for me.  I would rather take my chances of starving to death than have to get up EVERY single day of the week and eat breakfast at 7am with 40 of my best friends.  So I slept in this morning.  My alarm still woke me up from a dead sleep this morning at 8:15 am, though!  The adventure of the day was going to the local Anglican church.  Some of the other churches around the area are, well, a bit on the Pentacostal side for me.  Loud and long… and in the wrong language.  So we found this cute little Anglican church, which advertized an English service from 9 – 10:15am.  My dear roomie fed me one of her leftover cinnamon buns, and I’m already all set up to make coffee in our room (thanks to a kettle, a plastic camping “bodum” and a Nakumatt special mug!), and I had a lovely, albeit slightly rushed, breakfast.

And off we went with 8 of us down the street to the church.  

We got to the little church, with a wooden cross and tin sheets as walls, and found… well, not much action.  There were a few people and children milling about, but the doors weren’t even unlocked yet.  It was about 9:05am.  So we asked, “What time is the English service?”.  “9am” was the reply.  

A few minutes later, one of our colleagues from a neighboring African countries came ambling up the path.  He asked the same question, “What time is the English service?” and was given the same reply, “9am”.  He looked at his watch and replied, “Which 9am is that?”

Anyway, we stuck around and the milling people mentioned that the readers and leaders were late, but they were on their way coming.  A few minutes later, a young teen age guy came running up, all out of breath, with the keys for the church.  So the process of opening up the church and putting out the prayer books was underway!

Eventually, the reader for the day came along, and by about 9:35am, we were underway!  Of course, the 8 of us were about half the congregation, but it was a very nice service.  We were very warmly welcomed, and even invited around to someone’s home for tea following the service.  I think I shall be visiting that little church again next week!

But I certainly won't rush through my coffee in order to get there for 9am next week!