Scottish Seaman's Church and Hope International Baptist Church (31 juli 2011)

Well, here's the thing.  While I was still in the States, I checked the time in the Netherlands.  Then I set my travel clock to that time.  Then I came to the Netherlands.  Now, after nine hours in an airplane and almost no sleep, my internal clock was a lot wonky.  Also, since I hadn't realized that I had internet before bedtime and since my cell-phone doesn't even get enough reception to display the time, I just took the time as read from my little travel alarm clock.  


Unfortunately, APPARENTLY the clock I looked at did not take into account daylight savings time or some such and, as I was riding the tram, I noticed that the "tijd" display said 11:11 and not 10:11.  So, since it seemed like bad form to show up at church an hour late, I figured out where the church was (Google maps hasn't been as accurate as one might hope) and then went home.


This, though, is the building where the Scots Church meets.  It is immediately in front of the "Gay Palace."  I do not know the purpose of the "Gay Palace" but it did have a gigantic pink and purple flag out front.


This building was built in 1951 because the original church, or at least the former one, was destroyed during the war.  The church institution itself is about 400 years old.  By the '50s, however, the church had lost its strict protestant roots.  The five large stained-glass windows at the front of the church feature portraits: Christ (not quite a "Marvin" picture but pretty near) flanked by St. Peter and St. Paul and St. James and St. John.  I wanted to take a picture of the window and of the plate which shows the name and tenure of every pastor since the founding of the church but it seemed kind of sacrilegious in a functioning church, on the way to a service.

It took me a little while to figure out why the whole interior of the church was decorated in x's before I remembered the St. Andrew's Cross.  There was also a ship on the cloth over the pulpit (which was one of those little raised, enclosed pulpits dealies).


In the afternoon, Hope International Baptist Church meets in the Scots International Church building so I attended that service, instead.  It is an English language church which is pastored by an immigrant from Ghana.  There were 17 people attending, including the pastor's daughter and three grandchildren.  There was a guy from Dallas there, who has been in Rotterdam for two months.  There was also a Nigerian grad student who is studying at Erasmus, although at a different campus from the one where I will be studying, her two children, and her mother.  She gave me a ride home after church since she also lives in Zuid Rotterdam.  


The service was about what I expect a typical, lively Baptist service might be anywhere.  Some of the songs were songs which I remember singing (or not) in Convo.  The sermon was rather ad hoc, based on Titus 3:1-11, and part of a series on the book of Titus.  The pastor's main point was that sanctification ought to lead to doing good.  He did, though, however, bring in some commentary on the ongoing financial situation in Europe. And apparently, this is something that he has mentioned before:


"Who is Paul writing to here?" asked the Pastor.
"To the Cretans!" said the Congregation
"And" queries the Pastor, "Who are the Cretans?"
"Greeks!" replies the Congregation.
"And the Cretans are as they ever were" (or words to that effect) says the pastor, "and Paul tells us exactly what they are: 'Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.' (Titus 1:12)."


They had good pound cake after the service, too.