International Sunday

This Sunday was International Sunday at Salem Baptist Church in Grand Turk. Guess who was the guest speaker? No really guess?

Yes, that is correct.

The week before, I attended a meeting after church for all foreign nationals who attend Salem. As they started talking about what was going to happen next Sunday I started looking around. I used my quick observation skills and deductive logic to postulate, "This stinks, I am going to have to preach."

I try very hard here to separate who I was in the states with who I am here. Because the islands are so small you become what you do. I am Museum Neal. 100% of who I am is the museum.

When it came to deciding a theme, I suggested the theme of captivity and exodus. I spoke on Daniel. If you know me well you have heard this sermon more than once. But the story of Daniel is a story of someone removed from their home, their church, their community, and their family and forced to live in another cultural environment. It is a story of how to be true to who your are while assimilating into a new surrounding.

I also talked about our story. I spoke of how we got here, how it was Deneen's desire to look for a "beach and an adventure," how great the first year on Grand Turk turned out to be. I also spoke of our individual hardship and loss after the hurricanes. I talked about how I realize that the best parts of me have left the island and that makes it a real struggle.

I started by stating that I could never preach in my home church because they limit you to 20 minutes. But because Salem has an hour sermon ever week I would do fine. I am geared to talk the length of a history class after all. Introduction, body, conclusion: 55 minutes.

When I finished, the moderator, who I do not know very well, stood up to close and said "This is not just Neal's story. This is my story. This is how I have felt since sending my son back home to go to school after the hurricanes."

I have been getting comments like this all week.

On International Sunday I shared a story that I thought was my story.

But on International Sunday I found that is was all of our story.