This was an awesome day. A bunch of firsts for me... and they were some amazing firsts!
In the morning, we went to an African American church... the same one we were staying in. The girls in my room and a few boys decided to go to the bible study that was held before the church service. It was intriguing. I actually learned a lot from that study... too bad I didn't have the sense to write it down. Either way, I'm so glad I got up early enough to attend.
After the study, we ate breakfast in the fellowship hall with church members and the rest of the CCC group. It was a DELICIOUS breakfast, best one we had all week.
When the service started, I was so excited. Truthfully, I felt so at home! And my heart was overflowing with joy that morning! The music, which of course is my primary worship method, was beyond fulfilling. I danced and sang and hopefully made a fool of myself for the Lord. I have no other words to describe that experience... breathtaking and mindblowing worship...
Then, the speaker!!!! Most of the time, I couldn't understand him but WOW was he passionate! I LOVED it! Talk about inspiring a congregation...
The offering was another experience alltogether. The entire church went up the front to give. Even those of us that didn't have an offering touched the plates and prayed for blessings from God. That's something I want to continue symbolically in my life... I'll let you know how that comes along.
A few observations about the church we attended:
(1) Welcoming visitors is a BIG DEAL! We were welcomed at least 5 times by at least 4 different people from the pulpit.
(2) There is a first lady of the church. Her name was Lady Jay (First Lady Lady Jay). She was one of the coolest people ever! The First Lady of the church is the wife of the pastor... and she takes a very active role in the church goings-on.
(3) Everyone who came up to the pulpit to speak was labeled 'minister'. I'm not sure the reasoning... but I think that labeling is pretty cool, since after all, that's what we all are ;D
For lunch, we stopped at a chinese place on the way to a Museum. Justin (another CCC member) did his best to loose me in an attempt to follow his spazed-out GPS system. It was an interesting ordeal getting to lunch and then the museum... let's just saying, my following skills are definitely up to par!
The museum was engaging. There was an Egyptian exhibit with things from King Tut. However the biggest part of the museum was the African American History exhibit. We even walked through a slave hold, which was actually kinda scary.
The most interesting part of the museum for me... was a picture. It showed a teacher disciplining a child... with other students watching... and a monkey in the background... a live monkey. I'm still confused on that one.
After the museum, the group headed to dinner with one stop. Comerica Park. The entire group got a picture in front of the giant Tiger out front.
Dinner was at Pizza Papalis in Greektown. Parking was an event... I had never been in a spiral parking garage... I was pretty sure I was going to get lost and we would never eat. Luckily, I'm not that dumb. And the deep dish pizza was amazing!!!
At the end of the night, the group got together to bond. We learned everyone's celebrity look-alike, or act-alike (in only my case...). And then we played trainwreck... again, a first for me, but I hope it's not a last. That game was the highlight of my group gaming career.
Check in later for more!
-Britt
