.reflections.

This weekend was a true blessing and spiritual growing experience and I thought I would share some reflections.  Scott and I were able to venture north to Pittsburgh to stay with a friend who invited us to partake in some church services and fellowship with several of his friends.  Looking back on it now, I feel that Scott and I participated in our own little adult “youth retreat;” getting away from our work at home and letting ourselves partake in some hospitality  from fellow Christians.

  

After arriving and being shown where we would be staying, we headed out for some coffee and a cookout at a small church in inner-city Pittsburgh.  We watched as adults and children lined up for some “free range” hot dogs and other vegan dishes.  Children were playing with hoola-hoops and beating on drums in the grass, while parents mingled eating their food; it portrayed a true sense of community as church members provide this service every other Friday. 

After eating and meeting some new people (which is always a little hard for me because of my quieter disposition), we were shown the urban garden where some of the food had come from (gardens and fresh vegetables were a constant presence during our visit).  We walked through rows of broccoli, lettuce, peppers, and beans as our new friend pointed out the different crops and how they were sent to people throughout the community.  After marveling over the Garfield Community Garden and Farm, we headed back to the house where we were staying for some downtime and decided on The Book of Eli for our Friday night film.  If you haven’t already seen this film, I highly suggest it.  Despite the violence, it’s a very moving film about the power of books (one Book in particular).

The next morning, we headed to the Strip in Pittsburgh, which is basically a shopping and dining district where we accompanied our new friends to shop and eat together.  After a morning of browsing open markets and a book store, we drove downtown to experience Pittsburgh’s wonderful architecture and a sight of the city from the top of an incline.  Being a small-town girl, it was truly breathtaking to see the skyline and beautiful bridges.

That night, we accompanied our friend to a small Bible study/worship service in The Upper Room church.  There were around 15 of us and the service began in the lower level of the church where the purpose/constitution of the group was read.  Then we slowly and silently moved upstairs to “the upper room” where soft light met us and where Revelations was read, chapter by chapter, followed by singing.  We moved again downstairs and gathered around a small coffee table to partake in a “simple” meal (I say simple because these are the premises for the meal shared; each couple or single person brings a simple dish to share).  We had blueberries, honey-dew melon, fresh bread & butter, and cheese.   We then began a discussion of the reading, which was from the Philokalia, which is a collection of writings from the third and fourth century, written by the church fathers. 

Our reading for the night was from Evagrios’s reflections on prayer.  The reading and the discussion was my favorite part of the worship time because it opened my eyes to how I pray and how I can improve my prayer life.  For me, prayer can oftentimes seem more like a routine, something done before a meal or bedtime, since this was what was taught to me, and what is often taught to us, as a child.  This practice of a routine prayer time is very helpful for children, but oftentimes we forget to move beyond this routinely practice and mature into our own need for communion with God, which is what prayer really is. 

Furthermore, it was also helpful to read about Evagrios’s own struggle with trying to remain focused while the mind continually tries to wander and even becomes tempted to passion or anger, which can be harmful to our prayer experience.  Because I have been feeling the pull to become involved in a Bible study, this experience was very refreshing and it has made me realize that I am going to have to try much harder to find some kind of way to fill this need, either by Scott and me having a study of our own or beginning one with friends (which we were already contemplating).  As Christians, I think it is important to seek out relationships and ways to fellowship with others, learning and growing in the faith together.

The Upper Room Church is located in a store front so much of the time we were sitting in a circle easily visable to passers-by who would often stop and look in on our small group.  As we left, one man outside asked what we were doing to which one man in our group replied that we were having a study and that the building he was looking at was in fact a church.  The passerby said he thought we were perhaps having group therapy and that he (jokingly) was about to join us if that had been the case.  The man from our service replied that there was group therapy involved too, and I just thought that was a very interesting, and true, way of thinking about Bible study.  It does, in fact, include and provide some group therapy when you think about it.

The next day, we accompanied our friend to the morning worship service at a Mennonite church, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Upon entering the simple sanctuary, a girl was playing a hymn on her violin, which I really enjoyed since music is a very important part of my own worship experience.   The service was traditional, save for the skit about Namaan and Elisha performed by members of the congregation.  The hymns that we sang were my favorite part of the service (again, because musical worship is very important to me).  Instead of singing with the accompaniment of a piano or organ, we were lead by a singer and the congregation lifted up its voice in parts; it was beautiful!

A young couple was also dedicating their baby during the service and I just loved the way the father described his relationship with his new son and our relationship with God as children. {He said that when he sees his son crying and the tears rolling down his small cheeks, it saddens him and he wants to do everything in his power to try to comfort him.  He warms his bottle or goes to get food for his son, but still, the tears fall and his son is not aware that his father is taking care of him. If he would only be patient.} Oftentimes, we as Christians are like this because God sees our pain, and He is working to comfort us, but we are often so impatient with His timing that we forget to trust.  His simple words during the dedication of his son really touched me!

After the service, we headed back to where we were staying and lunch was made for us by our friend.  As we all three gathered in the kitchen, (Scott outlining his fellowship paper and Matt cooking), I started watching a documentary called “Very Young Girls,” (which I again suggest watching if you have the chance.  You can watch the trailer here.) about young girls from 13-20 who have been forced/coerced into prostitution.  It was a truly moving documentary and it really opened my eyes to this “grey area” issue, where there is no true black or white answer to whether these girls choose this lifestyle (this documentary was suggested to me because of a discussion about women the night before with Matt and Scott).  I told Scott later that I would love to incorporate documentaries like this one into my classroom later, just to provoke some different thoughts on such issues that seem easily answered when only a high schooler (my own thoughts on this particular issue was that these women fully choose this lifestyle and they are sinful people full of lust; it is much more complicated than that, and I see this now after being questioned and pushed to ponder this issue in my Women’s Studies course).

The last service we attended was a night service at a local church, which was much different from the other two services (which, as you can see, differed from each other as well).  Scott and I would describe the sanctuary as a "hollowed-out church sanctuary" with tables and chairs arranged throughout.  There was contemporary praise & worship style singing to begin and then we were urged to make our way to one of the prayer stations located around the room.  You could meet a member of the church in one corner and have them pray with you, light a candle and send up a prayer for those suffering around the world, or write down a prayer request to be shared at the weekly elder prayer meeting; there were also stations for people with children to do more interactive activities with them centered around prayer.  One thing that really struck me throughout this particular worship service, was the inclusion of the children.  Instead of the children being taken into the back, they were in a corner of the room with everyone else, quietly playing and fellowshipping with other children.  I really enjoyed that aspect even though Scott and I do not yet have a child of our own.  After the sermon on encouragement and the importance of encouraging each other as Christians, there was more singing and a simple communion.  At the close of the service, it was time for Scott and I to get on the road and head back home.

Throughout our “retreat,” Scott and I were both pushed into different kinds of worship and fellowship that neither had experienced before.  It really hit home the idea that it is very important for us to be pushed (even out of our comfort zones) so that we can grow and learn and reflect.  Looking back on the two more contemporary services, I was reminded of my time in youth group when our leaders and my peers and I were all trying to think and imagine more contemporary ways of worshipping (praise songs, small group discussions, etc.) and it seemed like the 20-30 year-old generation, the future leaders of the Church, are trying to incorporate some of those "youth group elements" into the more traditional worship service.  Since Scott and I have been attending mainly traditional Baptist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches for the past few years, it was very interesting to see the more contemporary incorporations that are occurring in these churches -  a weaving together of liturgy and contemporary worship. 

All in all, this weekend was a great blessing and growing time for me and I am very thankful we were able to accept the hospitality given to us and spend a weekend away growing in our faith.