Church and Dance Lessons?

Is it possible that you go to both a conservative Church of Christ church two times a day and manage to get in a dance lesson or two, all in one day? It is certainly not "ACU kosher" but it is possible. And I just proved it!

This morning I went to the most special and different church that I have ever been to. Danielle showed me to my class room, a circle of chairs with songbooks in them on the back porch, and then walked inside and left me to my own devices. I sat there and learned the children's names as they came along. I had about 10 students ages 9-13 in my class. We sang some songs, led by Salvation, one of my very charismatic students, and the class really seemed to enjoy that. After one of the songs, Ray, a student, said something in Samoan that I could clearly not understand and then all of the students turned and looked at me and laughed. I asked Roseta, the student sitting to my left what he had said, and she looked at me and seriously considered. I was worried. I had no idea what this child had just said about me that was so interesting and funny. I turned then to Mu'a the girl on my right and asked her what Ray had said. She looked at me and said, "He just said, 'She has pretty eyes. They are blue.'" Now I am not sure, nor will I ever be if that was the whole story or not, but I am thinking that if the worst thing they can find to make fun of me is my eyes, then I am in pretty good shape. 

After about 30 minutes, we went into the main room (I was quite glad to be out of the hot sun) and class started shortly thereafter. Roseta and Mu'a stayed close at hand, guiding me in proper church behavior and encouraging my Samoan singing. They would warn me if fast or hard parts were coming up, but laugh and smiled when I tried to delicately sing something like, "fa'alese'fatafata" to the tune of Holy Lord. It was really interesting. We sang in English and in Samoan and the sermon was translated sentence by sentence into Samoan. Communion was held in Samoan completely and so I took it only knowing that "Iesu Kriso" (Jesus Christ) and "ame'n" (amen) were said. I assumed the rest was alright. The "bread" was a flat cracker with an almost sweet taste. It was a great experience and I didn't mind the Samoan at all. 

We walked around the golf course next to our house this afternoon and then had evening church upstairs with the Ashley's (vocational missionaries). We talked about the second coming of Christ and urgency and death. The Sunday night time is for the palagi (white) Christians and is a chance to dig a little deeper. It was good spiritual food for thought. After dinner, Colleen took us to her room and taught us a dance. She taught us a Hawai'ian/Tahitian dance and then we are learning a Samoan dance. She thinks that we should all get together and perform at Ethnos, the culture show at ACU. We'll see about that. We also designed our puletasis and we are going to get them made tomorrow. I hope that mine turns out alright. I'll post pictures of it when it is done. 

Tomorrow we are going to start hard-core planning for our "tween" activities and the VBS. After getting to know the kids today, I am really excited about the church leaders that they are going to turn into. I ask for prayers for Salvation (that's what his Samoan name means) and Roseta. They need positive influences in their lives. I just hope that these few short weeks I have with them, might make a little difference. 

Today the kids asked me how long I am going to be here for. I said another 5 weeks. They asked me when I am coming back on island after that. I told them, I had to finish college first, and I wouldn't make any promises, but when I mentioned wanting to be a doctor, they said, "We need one of those! I would call you if I was sick!" The children really need to have positive young outside the church examples. I hope that what they see in me in the next 5 weeks is worth their imitating.

Love from American Samoa...