Amy
Renes has been attending Hoeksteen Reformed Church during her time
in the Netherlands. She has found members to be extremely friendly,
and giving, of mints.
February – 2005
Still in my room and getting ready to go, I quickly put a couple coins and some auxiliary Kleenexes in my Bible pocket and flop down the stairs to get my bike. Sunday mornings are always very quiet so a couple of dog walkers are my only path side company as I peddle the five minutes to church. I can hear the organ music as I pull in which means I am not late, but just in time. Since September, I have been attending Hoeksteen Reformed Church, where I am glad to have been accepted. Fresh out of Iowa, finding a church came a couple steps after finding a school.
Amy
Renes has been attending Hoeksteen Reformed Church during her time
in the Netherlands. She has found members to be extremely friendly,
and giving, of mints.
To my surprise, there were three possible churches within biking distance. Of course, this is not too different from Northwest Iowa, which is scattered with lots of them. Three churches in the area meant decision time for me. To be fair, I gave two of them a try, one time with my host sister, Karlijn, and one time with my host mom. Coming to the decision of attending the Hoeksteen was not too hard because it was a Reformed church, just like the Carmel Reformed from which I came. It also had a nice atmosphere and a cozy appearance.
The outside of the church is not very big, but consists of a small parking lot and some neatly planted trees and bushes on top of neatly cut grass. The church building itself surprised me with its size the first time I saw it. It was quite a bit smaller than my family’s church back in Carmel. Small congregation aside, I gave it a chance in my first months in the Netherlands.
Nowadays, or nowasundays, I slip into church and say good morning to members of the church. It has taken a while for me to get used to coming to church alone, but everyone in the church has been very welcoming. I still get people coming up to me and saying, “So you’re the American girl?” Language update: I can now understand and successfully answer that question in Dutch, along with almost any conversation with church members.
One of the smallest, but nicest things I have found at my church is that every Sunday, my pew neighbors share a small candy or mint with me. It is such a small gesture, but it happens every time. There is a cunningly timed point in the service, right before the sermon, when everybody goes for their mints, and each mint-bearer quietly makes sure nobody is left out. I think it is funny, and it is definitely appreciated.
One thing that is noticeably different in the church service is the singing. There are three different song books with various sections so I was very confused at first when it came time to sing something like Gez. 13 from the encrypted song list on the wall. It probably took me about three months to figure where to find each type of song. Without fail, I always had someone next to me that could share a Psalm when I was not finding the right section. Embarrassingly, I also had to get used to the singing, which is not very straightforward. Whenever the organist plays the introduction, he plays the first singing note for whole a count before the congregation joins in singing. Not expecting the delay, I always started singing right after the introduction. Singing alone. Thankfully they have not sent me away for patchy singing.
All in all, the members of my church have been so friendly and I consider myself lucky to have a church that is so pleasant. It has been great to talk to some people and join in communion. I mess some things up, but there is an nice congregation and Someone much more important who is definitely going to stick around, no matter which church. And being on the receiving end, I can say that it feels pretty good to be accepted.