Sunday, October 18
Before each meal at the manse, Rev Harrison likes to sing a song of praise or thanksgiving in addition to saying a prayer. Prior to breakfast this morning was the first day we knew the song he wanted to sing – “This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made.” Today we had pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, toast with guava jelly, papaya, and bananas.
We dressed in our Sunday best and boarded a small bus (an air-conditioned one!). We stopped by Wesley Methodist Church to pick up some of their youth and headed to Edmondson. The drive between Brown’s Town and Edmondson took a little over thirty minutes and wound through the mountains. Often, the view from one side of the bus was a rock wall and the from the other side was a steep drop off to the valleys below.
Edmondson Methodist Church is a little larger than Wesley where we spent most of our time this week. This church was built in 1877 on a hill and has a walkout basement, which makes it look quite large from the outside. There are panes of stained glass in all of the windows, and above the chancel are three round stained glass windows; one looks like a sunburst, and the other two look like flower petals.
It was nice to see the friendly, familiar faces of some of the children and adults we had been with the past several days at the music workshops.
Today’s worship services were part of the youth rally for all nine of the churches in the Brown’s Town-Edmondson circuit. The morning service began at around 10:30, and the order of worship was very similar to a United Methodist worship service in the US. The new pastor to the circuit, Rev Robert, led the service, but our group got up to lead a couple of songs, and Lance gave the sermon on the woman at the well and the importance of worshiping in Spirit and in Truth from John 4. We hung around outside on the steps of the church after service, talking to members of the various congregations in attendance and waiting for lunch. Lunch was served in the fellowship hall, which was a smaller building than its counterpart at Wesley. Various lunch options were available for purchase. Our group had rice and beans, festival (a small bread product similar to a hush puppy), mixed vegetables, a fried chicken leg, and a cup of juice. The price listed for this meal was J $350.00, or US $3.04.
We came back together following lunch for more worship. Our group led three or four more songs, and we had those from the area who had participated in the music workshops the past few days join us on the chancel to sing the songs they had recently learned. Then Rev Harrison invited the congregation into a discussion about how to help get the youth more involved in the church and how to keep them connected. At the end of this discussion, representatives from each congregation in the circuit were appointed to form a committee to continue to work on the subject of youth involvement in the church.
After saying goodbye to our new friends, we boarded the bus back to Brown’s Town, where we relaxed at the manse before a dinner of pork chops, macaroni and cheese, sweet and sour plantains, slaw with tomatoes and avocados, bread fruit, and chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. We definitely weren’t in any danger of going hungry this week!
Posted by Angela
