Church

A friend asked what church was like growing up. Please bear in mind that I did not live in the US until I was going on 12, so my experience may seem a bit odd to some of you. (Jenny, Sarah, Rachel, why are you reading? You went through it too, now go write your own stories, don't copy-and-paste mine.)

Hmm...let's see... Church growing up meant narrow benches without backs. The church floor was usually dirt and the walls (or half-walls, if there were any) were cinder-block. My dad was often the preacher and we were encouraged (by mom) to signal when he was getting too long-winded. Also, we got the "privilege" of doing a special-number (singing with my sisters) almost every time. We were the von Trapp family singers, except we're not Austrian (as far as I know), we had no brothers (until we all got married and had brothers-in-law), our mom never tried to become a nun ("Thank God", say Chris, Rubens, and Matthew), and our dad didn't have money coming out his ears (if he did, he's good at hiding it).

Church was usually followed by a potluck at the church or a meal at someone's house. And don't ask what the meat is, just eat it! We had all sorts of yummy dishes, with room-temperature (90 in the shade) water or Coke. And you wonder why I say "no thanks" to ice in my drink...Brrrr...

The village church we attended (when we weren't visiting/preaching/singing/eating somewhere else) was a short walk from our house, past some very large and scary dogs. You learned really fast to carry a stick and a pocket full of rocks and travel in a group. And never stop to pick up more rocks and get separated, you'll find a swarm of dogs (okay, maybe it was just a couple, but I'm pretty sure they had a taste for white meat) headed for you... hence my fear of large dogs (seriously, I still get tense around big dogs).

Every so often, a church would have a baptism service. This involved a day spent at a river (very dangerous to swim in). We played in the dirt and had a potluck lunch under tarps and blankets strung up to shade us.