Te Anau Christian Centre - first experience

Well, I have good news! It's 6:30 and I just woke up! Not too bad for going to bed at 11 last night! Someone said last night that she has travelled quite a bit and has learned just to persevere - to stay up as close to a normal bedtime as you can and your body will work itself out. And 6:30 isn't too bad of a time compared to yesterday morning!

So last night was my first charistmatic church experience - as far as manifestations of the Holy Spirit goes. I tell ya, it certainly was interesting. First off, people were dancing from the very start. And then I didn't catch onto it right away, but during one of the songs someone started speaking in tongues.

And there were lots of responses from the congregation during prayer and they were even given a time to speak a Word that God has given them. Then speaking in tongues happened more often, but not in droves because there were only about 20 people in total there.

John was preaching on the Holy Spirit and heaven on earth, and at the end He did an altar call (which all together sounded like he said "a nautical") for those who wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. One girl fell backwards to the floor (which I had only seen once before in Cranbrook but it was at a youth thing and the kids were looking at eachother and making a joke of it, it seemed) and the other two almost did - they wavered a bit but never fell.

I've yet to understand this - perhaps I've yet to accept it. I'm not too sure on how I feel about it. The experiece was completely new to me and I didn't quite know how to process it. I felt a little out of place, but I'm not going to stop going because I felt a little more conservative than the rest of the congregation...

Imagine! ME! Conservative! Who'd've given it even a FRAGMENT of a thought?!?!

Anyways, so my day yesterday was writing letters, watching the Steffens play games (they're quite competitive with eachother), having a nap, going to the church, meeting and bonding with Vanessa (Fiona's daughter - 16 - she's a doll), meeting many people, having tea (actual tea, not dinner) at church and at an older dutch couple's place afterwards, then going to bed.

Today is nicer out - sunny, not windy. It's cool in here but I don't know what it'll be like outside. Today I'll likely go into the town centre and buy the things I haven't been able to while it's rainy. You can get around anywhere by walking here - so I plan on doing that as much as I can while summer is still here and the weather's nice. Really, though, they said the weather doesn't get much colder than the single digits in the positive - 2 or 3 degrees celsius. So that's not even THAT cold. I can probably handle it! hehe...

Well I think I should go see if my shower water is going to warm up for me (it's a self heating water system in the Outhouse, I think they said...but when I tried to have a shower it wasn't self heating! haha) and perhaps take a walk around town before the rest of the family wakes up.