I went to church.........

I was thinking of sharing with you all my experiences with the church....besides the church that I went to when I was 14/15. So I'm gonna tell you about my soul searching that I started at a very young age......

My parents weren't into religion. I've never sat in a church with my mother. I've been with my dad....but only the one time, about 8 yrs ago when he converted to a 7th Day Adventist. So at a young age, I had friends who wouldn't be free to play Sunday mornings cause they went to church with their parents....and curious as I was, I never asked my Mom about it. It just wasn't something we did. My father was a Roman Catholic by birth....but he never went....his mother used to go irregularly, (my grandma his side) and I went with her occasionally. My Mom is full blood native indian....so her concept of God has always been the Great Spirit. She has always been at peace with her form of religion, and truthfully, there are many elements of it that I like very much.

My mom has been to a sweat lodge, to discover her inner self.....she used to frequent the medicine woman when she was ill......she was close friends with some very well known native elders from two big reserves in Ontario.....and was a close personal friend of a very famous Indian woman who once opened the House of Commons. My Mom's one big mistake in life was falling in love with a white man. Well, as far as her native friends were concerned. Although some of them turned their cheek to my father....others did not. My Mother and Fathers wedding rings were handmade silver rings with indian symbols on them....matching. They are beautiful. My Parents had a traditional Indian Wedding on Pauline Johnson's Estate on Six Nations Reserve. The Bride wore a beautiful deerskin dress with lots of fringes, and the groom wore full Indian dress costume, with a Ribbon Shirt and the whole feather hat thingy. Since it was my Mom's second marriage, I was also included in the wedding, there was a special piece added where they ask me if I accept this man as a father. I also wore a deerskin dress, white, and a feather in my hair. I was 8 yrs old back then.

So that summer, a troupe came to town and they brought a huge trampoline, jumping tent, u name it.....cotton candy, candy apples, sno cones....and they opened up directly across from my bldg in an empty lot. They stayed for three days and they were from the Salvation Army. They were so kind to all of us rowdy kids....did they want money for everything they were giving away? Nope....they just wanted us to know that on the next Sunday a bus would come to pick us to take us to church....would we be willing to go?? YES!!!! We all screamed...prolly 30 of us local kids, all happy....free fun...free food.....and a bus ride?? Funny enough, come Sunday, I waited at the stop that the volunteers designated for us, and I was one of three people. I was amazed that my parents agreed, I thought everyone elses parents would have been much more leniant. I wonder what happened to all 30 of us? The bus finally pulled around....a huge full size school bus painted with "SALVATION ARMY" across the side. I sat at the back all by myself. This isn't how I thought it would be. The bus stopped at a lot of places, picking up kids, families...etc, etc. Finally we arrived at the church, and they ushered us inside.....the volunteers spotted the 3 of us and brought us over to the side, asking why our parents didn't come. Sheesh. So I sat and listened to the service....I remember finding it interesting.....but was busy looking around for the snoring people that u always see on TV. Everyone seemed pretty lively...hmmmmm. So about part way thru the service they asked the kids to go downstairs for class. CLASS? I've been rooked! I thought....they are making me take school on SUNDAY!! But it wasn't like what I thought....we talked about Jesus, God and we got to draw pictures and paint. Oh yeah, pictures of Jesus....they weren't too happy with my pic of a spotted bird with chicken pox. How about Jesus with chicken pox? No.....ummmm.....how about Jesus under a rainbow with a bright sun? Yes.....ho hum. One by one, us kids handed in our pics.....oh look....Jesus under a rainbow.....sheesh.....it must have been the standard. But I got to use the glue....so it about added up. I went to that church about 2 mos straight, always alone, I never could convince my parents to come....always sat at the back of the bus, always sat at the back of the church....always wishing the priest would stop and say, "Alright, would the children all please go downstairs for class?" I had to restrain myself from jumping up and yelling, WOOHOO! (but I may have messed that up a couple of times) So that's my introduction to the Salvation Army.

After that, when I was about 11, another volunteer troupe arrived at the spare lot. This troupe was from Australia and they were doing mission work. They invited all the kids to a church down the street that was a temporary dwelling for them. It was small on the bottom floor of a bldg. I only went there once.....they didn't give out anything for free, we didn't get to cut and paste, we had to sit there and listen to the priest drone on and try and keep our eyes open. I didn't like that one.

So I told you about my Grandma.....well once a year I used to go with her to midnight mass on Xmas eve. My parents would take me to her house and her and I would get ready and go. We used to stand for the carols and sing about our Glorious God. I was blessed with a good singing voice, so Grandma used to like having me sing beside her. She was of German descent and some of the carols, she didn't know the english words. I remember the one Xmas I had taught myself to sing Silent Night in german.....it took lots of practice and work on pronunciation, but I did it. (remember how I told u I used to drill myself?) When it came time to sing Silent Night, I sang in my nicest voice, Stille Nacht......and when my Grandma understood what I was doing, she joined along with me with tears rolling down her cheeks. Of course our voices were drowned out by the hundreds of other worshippers, but it didn't matter anyways. My Grandma died when I was 14...and I suppose, so did midnight mass for me.

Now come up to 15...before I went to the "baseball church"......I had a girlfriend who used to live in Brampton. She asked me if I could come to her house one Sunday and we'd go to church together as part of our day. Well, I liked this girl, so I agreed to go. Service didn't start until 11:15 am, so I made it there with plenty of time. OMG....what a beautiful church. Not like any of the others I had been to. The priest was a wisened looking old man and his speech at the service was spoken directly to my heart. I even thought that he was looking directly at me when he talked. I started going there every Sunday.....I just loved it.....I used to shake his hand when I was leaving and think how to become more involved in this church. But after about 3 short months of regular attendance, the priest died. I stopped going.

So there you have all my experiences with church. Of course, you know all about the next one that came up in my life. There is also something that happened about 4 yrs after I was married. Jehovah's Witnesses.

Now I had enjoyed reading a lot, as u must remember and had devoured all Ahmed Deedat books, including some Shabbir Ally, if you've heard of them. Shabbir Ally had 2 great books, 1 about how to deal with Jehovah's Witnesses, and a second about questions in the bible. So one day, 2 female Jehovah's Witnesses knocked at my door. They kindly asked me if I believed in Paradise.....to which I provided a long and lengthy answer, being caught off guard. They stood patiently and let me finish my answer...and then the asked me if they could answer. (for you to know, this is a psychological trick....they ask you the question and u flounder thru it, then you are obligated to listen to their answer, for which they are prepared, with bible in hand and verses and the whole doodah. No matter how well u answer, u'll end up feeling like an idiot by the time they finish! So if you get asked that, tell them u need to be prepared for that sort of question, but you invite them to tell you THEIR thoughts about Paradise, and possibly they could come back later to hear your answer....that'll get em!!) Anyways....they told me their version, and asked if they could leave me some pamphlets to read, to which I offered them some as well.......they asked if they could come by again, to which I welcomed them. So a couple of days later, they were back. I invited them in....they sat with me prolly about 1 1/2 hours, only one woman talking, the other watching me, but sitting quietly. I came to learn as they changed the observer...that she was a trainee....never really encouraged to speak their opinions. The lady who was coming to me used to change her trainee's often. They spoke about a number of different subjects and quoted from all over the bible....I actually bought a bible from them. I was curious as to the column in the middle......it was for cross-referencing......I asked them that should I bring proofs that were not in the cross-referencing table, would that be acceptable.....they said no. The cross referencing system was designed by someone who understood the bible in all it's entirety and was done perfectly.

I discussed many issues with them....the part in the bible where Jesus says the "comforter will come after me...he will not say what he knows, but will say what he hears" A perfect reference to our Prophet Muhammad, saw. They argued the point. I brought up the part where it says that a believing person who is thinking of God should cover their hair.......they agreed somewhat, since they always walk with scarves around their necks....but they argued that it doesn't have to be done all the time. So many, many points we discussed. As well, I used to get out my Quran and show them the similarities within the bible.....We had two solid appt's....2X a week from 2 - 3. Sometimes they'd stay longer. That woman really tried with me. I even gave them my phone number.....a couple of times, the silent observers would call me.....and when I asked about them later, I heard that they had changed to a different location. Punishment for befriending the barbarian. So after about 5 mos of it.....I sat waiting for them to come. When the knock finally came, I opened the door and invited them in as usual....but this time, they declined.

The head woman had a message for me. She told me....."I've been visiting you for 5 mos now and I feel we are no closer to having you convert to our religion than we were in the beginning. I've come to the conclusion that the devil is whispering to you and we'll not get anywhere from more visits. I'm sorry, but we wont' be coming to see you anymore." Well, I was somewhat prepared for this.....so I answered her back...."Well, I'm sorry that you won't be coming to visit me anymore, in fact I really felt that we were getting somewhere with your observers...but really, I didn't feel like you were any closer to converting either....so that's okay....If you aren't interested then I wouldn't want to waste my time either." She left pretty quickly in a huff on that one. Till this day I'm happy that it ended so well. And you know what? As much as I saw Jehovah's Witnesses in my bldg after that....they never knocked on my door again. I suppose they sprayed an invisible X on my door. LOL!!

So there is my lengthy post about my experiences.........that's it so far....hope u enjoy!!

BTW: I had some pics to upload here, but Blogger is farting...maybe later.