I was planning on attending the Seminário Orvalho every morning this week from Monday until Thursday, but after yesterday I unfortunately couldn’t bear any more. On Monday morning there was a time of worship and prayer before the first message, but it was still okay, I could not raise my hands and not pray loudly and not feel that I stood out markedly. There was a very warm, joyful atmosphere and I had all sorts of positive thoughts about my charismatic brothers and sisters, and I was even moved to tears by the worship (in that inexplicable way music sometimes affects our spirit even when we don’t think much of the content of what is sung). It didn’t even bother me that much that the Brazilian missionary sitting next to me was frequently praying in tongues. The first two messages were disappointing though – after Luciano Subirá’s message on Sunday I was expecting something quite sound. Both preachers handled the Bible abysmally, though, I am sorry to say. I profoundly disagreed with their exegesis and application. I also found the prayer times at the end of every session a bit disconcerting, there was a lot of praying in groups or forming long lines of people holding hands and all praying together, and felt I didn’t fit into that. At about 11h15 there was the first break for the morning and I decided I would not make it to lunchtime, so stuck around a bit, spoke to one or two pastors I know from our conference 
and talked to the people I know from Bible study. I was totally willing to come back for the sake of the fellowship and contacts with people we dearly want to reach through Editora Fiel. Yesterday changed my mind on that score though. The Brazilian pastors (there are 6 of them, I think) took a much greater part in the pre-message time of worship, it was a lot longer, and there was a lot of commands (raise your hands in the air, tell God this-and-this, say this to the person standing next to you, etc), which I can’t stand, and a lot more people getting really worked up and shouting over the microphone. Some of it was downright silly, and I was amazed that a whole room of people could participate in what was essentially a short round of “Simon says”, with all sorts of funny noises and movements. As you can imagine, the white girl with folded arms who wasn’t taking part in all this and was very uncomfortable stood out a bit more then! At one point Teresa, the missionary I sat with again, even prayed for me, goodness knows what she’s been thinking… It was also very hot and I wasn’t feeling well, so when I couldn’t stand any more I made a sheepish exit.
My favourite blogger, Internetmonk, wrote a post last week entitled “Three days with the mainlines” in which he described his experience of attending an assembly or something of Presbyterians, Lutherans etc, where he was the only Baptist. I had so much appreciation for the grace in which he wrote about it, the overall positive experience it was for him and the genuinely warm appreciation he had for the spirituality of these brothers and sisters in Christ he generally has very little to do with. Unfortunately, my latest encounter with the type of Christians I feel most uncomfortable with has not left me with quite the same positive feelings. Mostly I’m sad – sad because by giving us the freedom to interpret the Bible for ourselves the Lord also gave us the ability to misunderstand it, sad because I don’t know whether I’m practicing “discernment” or just being incredibly arrogant in my beliefs, sad because there are so many of the Lord’s workings I don’t understand, sad because I’m lightyears away from these people in almost every belief I hold most dear, even though I love them in Christ.
On a different note, I learned last night that my friends Henri and Melanie van der Walt are coming here today to pack up their life in Nampula – so I need to scramble a bit to get things ready for them, I expected them tomorrow and was hoping it would ony be Tuesday! Looking forward to the fellowship though.
