A Visit to Church

Last weekend in Cairns there was a festival and on Sunday afternoon there was a Cairns Gospel Concert.  The Chinese Fellowship at my church was taking part in the festival, but I wasn't able to make it to their performance (I was working in reception).  Lisa, Jason, and a few others went to the festival and Pukari and I stopped by for a few minutes on our way to dance class.  Anyway, on Monday Jason was talking to me about the festival and he said he really enjoyed the gospel music portion of the evening.  In the course of our conversation he said he'd like to go to church with me on Sunday (most, if not all, the hostel regulars know that I go every Sunday morning).  I told him he was more than welcome to tag along, but I had the impression it was just a passing thing for him; he'd been moved by the music and atmosphere but not enough to follow through six days later.  To my surprise, he asked me yesterday morning at breakfast what time he should be ready to go with me today.  Pukari had mentioned at one point that he'd like to go to church with me sometime, so I figured if Jason was going to come Pukari might as well join us.  So, at 8:30 this morning we all went to church.  I didn't really get a chance to talk to Jason about the service afterwards to see what he thought, but hopefully it made him think.  Pukari told me he was glad I'd asked him to go and that he hadn't been to church in a long time.  He had told me weeks ago that he and his mom had gone to a Presbyterian church in town for a year or two several years ago, so I asked if the service was similar to what he was used to at the other church.  He just shook his head no and didn't elaborate.  It's been interesting to see people's reactions to my church attendance.  There's one gentleman here (a very rough guy) who always teases me that he's going to come and sit in the back row and start yelling that I'm crazy or some such nonsense.  Another gentleman has told me that he's an atheist and thinks that all religion should be outlawed (he thinks that will solve the problems in the Middle East or something).  So, we'll see what happens next week if Pukari and Jason feel like tagging along again.