HALLELUJAH! PRAISE JEEZUS!

Pentecostals are awesome. I can say that without any irony. Lauren (or Rolen, as I like to call her) and I went to the evening service at a little brick church, very cozy and warm, with around 25 people. We were recognized as "visitors" and given forms to fill out. I like to think we're sort of like aliens - people just look at us and are like, "you're not of our kind. But you are welcome to join us; we are very tolerant of space people."

The first prayer was the hardest of the evening. The pastor's helper got up and said we're going to pray, and Lauren and I both put our heads down and suddenly everyone else has their hands up and they're saying, or yelling, or muttering "la la la HALLELUJAH! See la la ob la" and Lauren and I looked at each other and that was it for the next 30 seconds or so. I tried so damn hard not to laugh, but I guess the holy spirit was telling me to do it. So I laughed. Then we sang, loudly, along with a pianist, a drummer, and a woman with a great voice and a microphone. Lauren and I clapped, sang, yelled out hallelujah in between the songs ... They are really into repetition (the better to sing to) and I sang as loudly as I have ever sang without the aid of alcohol. It was wonderful, I felt good. I can still hear the songs in my head, over and over. The whole experience was holistic: the songs, the way people were so sincere, the smell of smoke lingering on some of the other participants.

Which brings me to other people in the church. They were diverse. Some looked like headbangers, and then there was the nice Christian family, with the girls in long skirts with long hair, and there were lovely old ladies who gave us hugs. Two people got baptized, one a young woman who would not have looked out of place at the Peacock, who said a prayer "for the father of my children, that he can find God" but she was with some other dude there, with long hair and dressed in all black; his t-shirt read "Don't make me come down there -God." The other baptee was a very young man (20?) who seemed a little out of it and who I initially thought wasn't happy to be there. He was a skinny little hipster in saggy pants. I think he might've been a little touched, as they say.

Here's something I overheard today:
Pastor: Those who do not know Jesus are lost
Lauren: Amen
Me: holy shit (silently, trying so hard not to laugh I thought my head would explode)

I will end this post with the same observation I began it with: Pentecostals are awesome.