sedativegunk

We did a little PTL while in Humjibre (PTL, as in praise the Lord). While I’m not a religious person, I think it is important to partake in the local religious services to understand the culture as they are one of the best moments to see the community in action. It would also be taken as an insult, I think, if we were invited and we didn’t go.

In past Habitat builds, the team has usually been invited to visit one church and to attend the entire service. In Humjibre, it was decided that we would do a “church crawl” of sorts, dropping in to 3 churches over the course of the morning and spending around 30 minutes in each. The idea here is we would not be showing favouratism to any one church – an important consideration in a rather diverse community. All chuches were advised of our itinerary so there were no surprises.

The first was the Church of the Pentacost. The church itself was spacious and new but not very well attended. It made me wonder who bankrolled the construction of this church as clearly the few members in the pews did not have the wherewithal on their own to construct it.  I know there’s deep pockets in the evangelical community in the U.S., so maybe the money is coming from there.

The pastor was a firebrand of best kind (but very friendly). He switched easily between the local dialect and English. His conviction was conveyed in the sheer pitch of his voice and the volume of the loudspeaker. If this were Spinal Tap, the volume would have been at 11 – and climbing. His message – when it was discernable through the distortion – conveyed that each person in the congregation was a hellbound sinful creature. Nothwithstanding the rhetoric, he went out of his way to thank the Habitat volunteers for joining in the celebration and wished us well. There was music, singing and dancing – the dance included us and we were strategically directed past the donation box – and then we hit the road of redemption to church #2.

The Anglican church was cramped, unventilated and dark. When we arrived, the service was well underway so we crept quietly to some benches that were set aside for us. There was some good up tempo boogie music and then the pastor began his sermon. Again, the pastor switched between the local dialect and English easily. But instead of being welcoming like the Pentacostal minister, this pastor did not acknowledge our presence until after about 15 minutes when one of his henchman whispered something in his ear. We have no idea what was said, but the pastor (who we found out later was a visiting pastor from the big city) took a moment out of his sermon to tell us volunteers for everyone to hear that his service had a certain sequence and that our arrival would not change the course of how he intended to proceed. After 30 more minutes of relentless pontificating on the part of the pastor in the stifling heat, the local Habitat representative who was organizing the day for us decided to pull the plug on the whole fiasco and we walked out. So no blessing from the Anglicans for us, I guess. In the pastor’s defence, perhaps the message never got to him that we were trying to fit in multiple services over a limited period of time. Either way, our apparent transgression and the pastor’s pettiness meant that the congregation was deprived of our donation. Onto church #3.

The Catholics were probably the biggest surprise of all. The church was big and full. The people very welcoming. There was a choir that sang both local liturgical music and the more western kind. We volunteers were given VIP seats on the alter. The parishioners were engaged, bouncy and singing. And, best of all – the congregation was led by a brass band! Yep you read this correctly. I’m sure the Vatican would have a kiniption if they knew about little old Humjibre’s brass band antics. This place rocked!!! We danced with the parishioners in the aisles for a good 10 minutes while the choir belted out hymns. Most touching of all was the blessing the deacon gave us volunteers before we were sent on our way – very personal and very much from the heart.