Neighbor kids to church:

Since January I discovered it would be a great use of my Sunday mornings to help the neighbors join a church. It all started sometime in 2008 when at the request of a neighbor who is a Muslim and Guardian I started taking her girl Mamie to church with me. At that time I was driving and visiting different churches near our partner schools in the center of town. Well, more and more children wanted to come to church with me. So instead of illegally overcrowding Azul (my Toyota 4-Runner) or telling the children they could not come I decided to find a church close enough for us all to walk. The motives of many of the children to join me at church were 1. to ride in the automobile, 2. to spend time with a white person 3. often I invited them to my house after for snack, reading or a film.
Since riding in the vehicle was such a big excitement to the children the first few weeks we overcrowded Azul. I drove them less than 1 mile on the back road so the police would not stop us. But I realized that the children need to learn to go to church even if I am not around to drive them so we started walking together.
There are about 4 churches within walking distance. I ended up deciding to attend a non denominational church that ends by 12:00 or latest 12:30. Other determining factors for this church are 1. it is the closest walking 2. The children were engaged during church and welcome to stay with the adults instead of having to sit in the back.
Although it seemed our best option, truthfully there were several things that turned me off about the church in the beginning. The church is lead by a husband and wife team. Although it was evident that the “Reverend Mrs.” cared about the church member’s salvation, the way she showed love seemed harsh and legalistic. During the service if the children were not bowing their head and folding their hands in front of them she went and put their hands together for them. The church has the woman all wear head coverings…So at the door they gave me and the girls a cloth to cover our heads. The first service we attended she had two boys who had been regular church members stand during the service because they had not brought Bibles and they were playing when they should have been listening. The second Sunday we went one of my neighbor boys had just quieted after I told him a second time to listen… Rev. Mrs. Decided to stop teaching stare at him about 20 minutes then say, “If you do that again I will beat you.” That statement upset me to the point that I wanted to stand and leave. Instead I took off my head cloth, shifted in my seat and told the Rev. Mrs. “Don’t say you are going to beat him.” She responded, why not the Bible says we should beat children to correct them. I asked her if we could talk about it after church. Again she told the boy, If you do it again I will beat you. She had the boy stand during her mini children’s sermon.

Since that Sunday I have had several talks with Rev. Mrs. and Mr. We are getting to know each other and work together better….she is letting me manage the behavior of the children that come to church with me. We have even partnered in helping the children practice an Easter program so they can invite their parents.