Struggling through Sunday

Today has been a challenge, which is saying a lot because the kids are actually napping! (Small victory.) After some tears yesterday over missing home, and as one kid put it, home missing us, today has been rough on me. We visited a church today. The worship was really good! It was a little different than we're used to, but some of the songs were familiar and it was nice to sing with a family again. It kind of got me excited - maybe we found a church home! Then the lesson started. There was some negative talk about another religion and very little scripture (one reference, never read). At the close of the lesson, the speaker indicated this was an introduction to what will be covered over the next few weeks. What that means to me: it wasn't a true sermon sample, so we'll need to come back for a few more weeks & see how things go. It was kind of a let down for me that it wasn't an instant fit.

There are ups & downs to looking for a new church home. It's been about 8 years since I was last in the market. While I remember it being difficult, I guess I had let go of the emotions & pressure that can come along with it. It can be really exciting to visit a new church and feel the energy of the worship. For me, this morning, it also tugged at my emotions - the sweetness of worship in a strange place after several weeks of absence and the sadness over what we left behind to come here. We visited a different church here in Shanghai when we came for M's interview. I felt equally uncertain of our fit with that congregation as well. Worship was very loud and the seats were uncomfortable. On the flip side, the lesson was straight from the Bible with plenty of references and there seems to be a very large children's program there.

I've heard there are one or two other churches we can check out on our side of the river. We'll have to decide on our visiting strategy going forward. I know our kids aren't going to be excited about it, but we will continue to be dilligent in our search. Worship, fellowship, and accountability don't lose their importance on an international assignment!