Church Kolkata style

Sunday morning took a while to arrive mainly due to lack of sleep. The term 'Kolkata never sleeps' had a whole new meaning with what sounded like a nightclub in mine and Kat's room for most of the night. We were told in the morning that there was a big Hindu celebration coming up and this was part of the run up to it! All I kept thinking was that if that was the run up goodness knows what it would be like on the actual day!

Anyway, I digress - back to church in Kolkata. The first service we attended was at the Circular Road Baptist Church which to all intensive purposes was just like a typical Baptist service back home. Very much male led however with the exception of the youth participation where they led some of the worship.Mat spoke on Jonah and all in all we were made to feel very welcome.

Me outside Circular Road Baptist Church

The second service we attended that day was a complete polar opposite. This was at the Big Life Hindi Fellowship and we were accompanied by Benjamin Francis . The worship was spontaneous, exciting and incredibly loud, with the worship leaders and congregation not holding back with regard to showing their emotions. We were all introduced to the church and all given a scarf as a welcome gift. Again a humbling experience for me.

Benjamin Francis in action

Benjamin. Francis 

Worship being led at the Big Life Hindi Fellowship

Sam and I both shared our stories of how we came to become Christians with Benjamin translating for us. This was quite a leap out of my comfort zone but I decided that it was better to jump straight in. I found it quite an emotional experience. Kathy, Charlotte and Kat sang Our God is An Awesome God to the church and I think they appreciated our contributions.

Charlotte and Kathy singing

Towards the end of the service we were asked to pray for people with the main need being for healing. I was not alone in finding this aspect particularly difficult. The language barrier as well as feeling rather out of my depth and to be honest not feeling adequate enough made this a difficult process. A lot of these people had such a need but what was quite striking was  their reliance on God and belief that God would answer their prayers.

All in all it gave me quite a lot to process.