Americorps Journal Entry #3: Sunday, October 21

Last night, I tried again to get to the Orthodox parish on the other side of the Air Base, walking with some friends of mine. However, after we got about halfway, the sun went down and it started to get dark, so we turned around and came back to the base. However, the walk was not completely fruitless, for I was able to have a good conversation with the people I was with about faith, religion, doctrine, Tradition, morality, and more. I sincerely hope that God will be able to use that conversation to be a blessing to both myself and to the others who were involved in the conversation.

Today I went to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation. I had contacted a friend of mine, the daughter of the priest, and she offered to come and pick up me and another Orthodox Americorps member to go to church. We arrived a few minutes late, but didn't miss too much. I must admit, though, that throughout the service, I had a hard time following, because a large portion of the service was done in Greek. In addition, the church had one of those choirs that tries to sing music so complex that all the singing gets drowned out by itself and that no member of the laity could sing along and participate in worship even if he wanted to. Don't get me wrong, the music sounded wonderful, but it was impossible for me to follow along, even with the Greek text and an English transliteration in front of me. Perhaps those who are fluent in Greek find it to be a greatly edifying blessing.

However, despite my limitations in understanding and in participating in much of what was happening in the services, I was greatly blessed by the opportunity to participate in the singing of hymns and in partaking in the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist. Thank God for his gifts!

After the church service, we stuck around for a little while, spoke briefly with the priests and other various people, and enjoyed fruit and cookies. I was pleasantly surprised to see a few of the youths that I had seen when I was a camp counselor earlier this year.

When we were driven back to the base, I asked my friend if she could drive me by the Orthodox parish on the other side of the Air Base, just so I could see if it really existed and to see if I could get some information on what time it held services. She thought this was a good idea, and we drove by the parish. It turns out that this OCA mission parish is actually a small Romanian church. I was able to talk with the priest there for a while and to get some information about the church. He was very nice and quite welcoming, and answered al of my questions well, although at times it was a little difficult to converse, since, it seems, he wasn't totally fluent in English.

I do have to mention this: I asked him about the language that services were held in at that parish, and he informed me that the services were normally held in Romanian. But, he said, if some Orthodox people started coming from the AmeriCorps base, he would try to do some of the service in English for us.

After all of this, I returned back to the base. I later took a walk with some friends.

___

Let me request the prayers of any of those out there who might still read this blog. Please pray that God would help me to keep up with my prayer rule and other aspects of the Orthodox life while I live and work here in Americorps, and that I wouldn't only perform these mechanistically or in a legalistic manner, but that they would be a means of spiritual healing.

Also, pray for me, that God would strengthen and guide me in my dealings and relations with all those around me, and that he would help me to respect and love all those around me. Pray especially for guidance in my relationships with my roommates, and also for guidance in my relationships with those of the opposite sex.

May God live in me and shine through me. Please.

__________

_pons