Have twins will travel: Seattle

We sat down for Sunday breakfast of home made waffles and maple syrup, then piled into two cars (into our car for the first time) and drove the half an hour to church, towards Seattle. We started to see smartly dressed folk wandering towards it from a couple of blocks away. I didn't think there would be any parking but amazingly there was. We saw a playground attached to the church but it was locked to we headed in with Sally our host and her daughter.

The focal part of this service was to celebrate the graduation from high school of 5 and the graduation from college /university of another 5 of their youngsters. At one point in the service the minster explained it was important to celebrate this for African Americans to provide good role models and recognize what an achievement it was.

So we sat down on a long long pew with bright red cushion, half way towards the front as i'd forgotten my glasses. (thats a phrase that i normally associate with old people i know!) An old man in front of us turned round and shook our hand and said good morning. I didn't go there expecting anything to happen as that would be wrong, but part way through the second song "Please don't pass me by" with its incredibly uplifting tune, i was so moved by the power of the music and the love in the air and the feeling of warmth and togetherness (its making me breathe deep just writing this and thinking about it again) and friendliness of everyone that it again made me realize what we miss out on (or I miss out on - Sarah gets upset if i write on her behalf), that i started to gently cry for about the first 20 minutes....some of it mourning and some of it the happiness of the surroundings we were now in. Then after a innovative bit of acting from 6 older women to publicize an upcoming event they then asked any first timers to stand up in our pews so we could be welcomed.

The congregation was then invited to say hello to everyone around them but especially us, so i ended up shaking hands and smiling again through tears as all these characterful warm faces and hands came our way.

The children started to get a bit bored so after a brief foray into the rafters we stumbled across a day care session where they happily spent an hour making Fathers' Day cards and watching a little film about vegetables?!!

The Pastor did a sermon about 'degrees' and about the fact that sometimes a degree isn't all you need, education can be coupled with many things to produce a good outcome, and education kindness go hand in hand - to make the head feel as if you are doing the right thing there has to be an element of heart involvement..

He mentioned many things about the black struggle and the teachings of Martin Luther King in the 50's and 60's, they way that he defended black citizens again white juries and won. He was an eye opening preacher and a very powerful orator. Very moving. He qas shouting at the end of it and lots of the congregation were standing shouting Amen. The pastor was sweating from his forehead with the effort he put into it

Afterwards there was a Graduation Lunch with a fantastic jazz band playing lots of old favourites. Guy was happily singing along and we were met and welcomed by many, many members if the congregation. Half an hour later the pastor was still wiping his forehead as he did the rounds and spoke with us again