I made it to the Chung Chi College Chapel, but I was about half an hour early. It's not the most beautiful church I have ever seen, but I will say it's architecturally unique. The lower level is the fellowship hall, which is called the "Lower Level Lounge." On the second floor, you have some church offices and a meditation hall, which can fit about 10 people. Finally, the third level is the big sanctuary, which is where I went in. Here's the church:
Since I had some time before the service started, I looked around the sanctuary and took a picture of this plaque:
I also thought some people back home might like to see what a Bible looks like in Cantonese:
I came in time to hear the choir practice. I was pretty excited because I understood the one line of the song that translated as "Great God, I love you." I went up into the balcony because, frankly, I usually feel more at home there. I remember being 8 years old sitting in the balcony at First Methodist flipping through the hymnal to find Hymn #268 "Lord of the Dance" while Dad operated the sound system by the balcony stairs. I took this picture from the balcony, and I really felt like I had been transported back to the big white church on 3rd Street.
Still, I felt compelled to descend from the balcony into the lower pews. I sat on the left-hand side (according to the picture above), and about 7 pews from the front. Soon, other people began coming in, and a man came up to introduce himself to me as Rev. Dr. Andrew Wai Man, the College Chaplain. We talked for a bit, and I filled out a visitor's form even though I could really only provide my name and email address. A few other people my age came (I assume they were students), but no one else that I knew. Most of the people in IBCE are rather agnostic, or perhaps atheist. Religion isn't something we've discussed in detail just hanging out in the dorms, other than the occasional person saying "I'm not really religious." Honestly, that's the prevalent attitude here in Hong Kong, so I wasn't really surprised that the sanctuary was far from full. Still, there were many people who came. What surprised me most is that there were all different age groups, lots of elderly people, young parents with elementary-school age children. A few teenagers, some of whom looked like they had been dragged there by their parents and some who looked happy to be there. Everyone was dressed nicely but casually, including the pastor. There wasn't a suit or a dress to be seen.
I went to the usher before the service started to collect my church-apparatus. This might be a new concept for long-time traditional southern church-goers, but churches have gone high-tech. In a multi-lingual environment like Hong Kong, even the church manages to get everyone listening. If you don't speak Cantonese (and I don't) you get the church-apparatus, which consists of an International Bible and an International Hymnal (each of which has around 5 different languages), and a walkie-talkie-like thing with an earphone. You set the channel according to your language (English is Channel 2), and your little walkie-talkie-thing picks up the signal of someone simultaneously translating everything that's said. So while I was listening to Cantonese with my left ear, I was listening to English with my right ear. I learned some new words in Cantonese, too: they translate to "amen" and "please be seated."
When I perused the program, I realized that this church didn't just remind me of a Methodist Church...it WAS a Methodist Church! Anyone who's ever attended one knows exactly what I mean: the structure of the service is uniform from church to church and Chung Chi went completely by the book. We sang many different hymns, and what surprised me more was that they were ones I knew! We sang "Gloria Patri" and "Not What I Am, O Lord," just for some examples. I wish I could show everyone the International Hymnal because the English words were printed directly below the Cantonese ones so while everyone else was singing in Cantonese, I was singing the exact same thing in English. The most exciting moment for me was the reading of the Apostles' Creed because I didn't need the translation to know exactly what was going on.
When the time came to make an offering, I gave HK$10, and then we did the welcoming, where I met a few more members of the congregation. There were a couple of little girls who couldn't be more than 3 years old and they wanted to touch my hair so I bent down to let them. I guess I must have looked funny to them.
Eventually the service came to an end and the pastor invited everyone down to the Lower Level Lounge for tea, which is apparently something they do every week. I socialized there for about an hour, and I met more of the congregation. One of the CLC teachers goes there, but she teaches Level 3, and there was a lady who worked in Atlanta for 7 years who talked to me for a long time. I also talked to the pastor again, and he told me that my suspicion was indeed correct: Chung Chi College Chapel is a Methodist Church. They try to reach out to other denominations, but they abide by the Methodist structure. That makes me feel so at home. I also got approached by a man in his early 50s with a giant plate of delicious-smelling monkey bread. He kept trying to give me more and more of it, and telling me how he makes it every week for after church. I tried it, and it was SO delicious. I'm actually excited about having more of it next week because, yes, I am definitely going back. Going to church--the service, the fellowship, and even the monkey bread--really made me feel at home. I'm starting to feel like being in a foreign country is a good way of rediscovering what's really important to you. Things that you take for granted and are always available when you want them become precious and rare. I think that what resonated with me about going to church today wasn't about any kind of homesickness or comfort-seeking. Some gut-feeling brought me there today and I realized how much I had really been missing church these last couple of years. I'm sure that God brought me to Hong Kong for a reason. Maybe that reason is self-discovery or maybe it's something bigger. Who knows?
Eventually, I left the church and went to drop my stuff off at the dorm. I met up with a big group going to lunch so we went together. I still didn't quite feel like rice, rice noodles, or rice dumplings so I had a pastrami and cheese toastie, which was surprisingly satisfying.
When I got back on the bus to go back, I ran into one of the guys from the California group and we got talking about things people ask us a lot here. The main thing: What's the food like in America? After joking about that for a while, he brought up that their group is leaving this Thursday to go home and he still has all this cooking stuff he isn't going to use. To make a long story short, he bequeathed all his unused ingredients to me (and, NO, I didn't ask for them). So, yay, free veggie oil among other things.
I also finally got my listening homework to work so I was able to complete my assignment. I even got extra studying done. My luck had really started looking up.
Of course, the hot plate was still misbehaving when I was ready to cook so I just figured out how to make tortellini soup in the microwave. The taste test was conclusive: dee-lish. No problems then, other than it being somewhat of a pain to make. The good news is that later I ran into Diana while she was boiling eggs and she showed me how to use it properly. Assuming I can get it right next time, I am most definitely in business.
I enjoyed my church, my toastie, and making my tortellini soup. I ate it with CHEESE too, so I think it's safe to say that I've had a thoroughly and satisfyingly Western day. In other words, I've had enough little reminders of home over the weekend that I am now ready to order pork bun and rice noodle ball for breakfast tomorrow.
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