After my successful display of bravery and independence on Saturday, it was time to try it out again on Sunday morning by going to a completely new church. So it may not have required a huge amount of bravery (initially I'm quite good at fitting in with Christians, it's only when they get to know me that the problems occur...just kidding!) But still, I did have to try and completely new church in a completely new place.
The first thing to say is, I love churches that aren't in designated church buildings, there just seems to be something so much more welcoming and much less intimidating about a meeting in a school hall compared to a stone, steepled thing. This was without doubt the impression I got from All Nations. Moreover, the guy at the door welcoming people was waving at me when I was still a good hundred yards or so away! Loitering awkwardly inside meant that two guys came and introduced themselves to me and were taken aback when I told them I'd not even been in Canada 48hours and had still made it to church. They introduced me to a wonderful girl called Jolene was is just hilarious and lovely and I met another "newbie" called Kim who's moved to Ottawa from Vancouver Island and is so outgoing and bubbly!
But the craziest thing ever happened a couple of minutes later. Jolene introduced me to the guy, Mike, who was leading the service that morning and he had a British accent. He then asked me where I hail from in the Land of Hope and Glory and I told him Didcot, adding near Oxford just in case he didn't know where the centre of the universe that is Didcot is. Smiling knowingly, he called his wife, Hazel, over, who's also British. She asked me where I was from, I said Didcot and...she's from Didcot! And she's a Didcot Girls' School survivor just like me! Hazel was the morning's preacher (woo!) so it was totally crazy to think that, last Sunday, I was in Didcot, with a preacher who went to Didcot Girls' School and that, this Sunday, I was in Ottawa, with a preacher who also went to Didcot Girls' School! It's a small world after all!
The service itself was unlike anything I've ever experienced in a "normal" church setting. I've seen the Spirit move in power at events like Soul Survivor, but I've never seen Spirit ministry done in the small scale and intimacy of the 60-odd people in a random school hall in Downtown Ottawa. Furthermore, it was hard to tell whether I was taken aback by the shouting out of "Amen!" during the sermon and worship was as a result of my faith or my acute British reserved nature. Time will tell. All Nations couldn't be more different than St Leonard's though, that's for sure!
I love Christlike Christians! Mike and Hazel invited me back to their house for a barbeque and I had a great time hanging out for hours and hours with them, Jolene, Kim, Joanna, Julia and Julia's parents. It was such an affirming afternoon, getting to soak up the sheer brightness that radiates from them all; they're so living as Kingdom ninjas unabashedly. My only real contribution to the Christian side of things was to introduce them to the British Christian tactile movements: the supportive Christian elbow, the affirmative Christian shoulder, the back pat of rebuke and the sister in Christ thigh squeeze. Sitting in Mike and Hazel's back garden, I couldn't quite fathom just how suprememl blessed I felt.
After hours and hours of chatting and laughing, Mike and Hazel took me, Kim and Jolene to Walmart to grab some essentials. Walmart is huge. Walmart is overwhelming. Walmart has the same clothing range as George at Asda and that was bizarre.
God has provided me a wonderful church to call home whilst in Ottawa and I am so so thankful!
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