Working in Bangkok

Well, I think I mentioned that Amanda and I were volunteering with Christ Church Bangkok, right? Well...we're still doing that--but for a bit longer than originally planned. We've agreed to stay on here until October! (I know--that's a long commitment for us!) However, within that time we still have time to take off for a few weeks or a month and travel to places like Russia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and India. :) (The picture's from the Grand Palace in Bangkok...)

We are officially helping with children's ministry--quite a bit on the admin side of things, but also directly with the kids. At the beginning of March, for example, we took 12 kids on a two-day barge trip. It was fantastic! We both love the water anyways, so hanging out on the river for two days was great. The kids had fun too. We had a program for them focussed around the verse: We tried to explain the concept of living water through the example of physical water. The barge team lead by Linda (the friend we stayed with in Chiang Mai) did the environmental demonstrations and the Christ Church team did the spiritual connections. Amanda and I (and Milo--he was still here) mostly just supervised. And, yes, when I mean supervise I mean we did some work... :) We were able to go along as only supervisors because there's a team of ten young people from the UK working with Christ Church right now too. They've been a huge help with all sorts of things--including the barge trip.

Besides special trips like the barge trip (shown in the picture), we do help out on Sundays with Sunday School classes if need be. We do a lot of pre-Sunday prep for the lessons and activities and we are going to start creating/sourcing new curriculum after Easter. I also put together a kid's newsletter, Amanda did a powerpoint for the church about the barge trip, we co-ordinate schedules, etc. Generally we keep busy! :)

We've also been trying to visit the Pakkred orphanage once a week. The church has a weekly visit there to help out with the kids who have cerebral palsy (well, most of them do anyways--some of them have Downs Syndrome I think). It's a very unfortunate truth that many kids with disabilities get abandoned here. The orphanage is government-run, though, so they are trying to be part of the solution. Pakkred is always fun--we just go for a few hours each week, to play with the kids, take them out for walks in the strollers (most can't walk), feed them lunch (including chocolate cake!), and then go.

We have also rented a small apartment here (apartment being just an appropriate word...). It's really just one room and a bathroom, but it works for us and it's cheap! It fits two beds, a closet, a desk, and a fridge--what more do we need! :) It's also in a building where there are mostly Thai people living--not "farangs" (foreigners). We really like that 'cause we like being part of the local community. The picture shows a bit of the apartment--and another favourite part of living in Thailand--all the fresh fruit!

It's quite fun actually, 'cause a lot of the other foreigners we've met (many of them also work at the church) live quite close to us. Within a few blocks of where we live there are at least five other people/couples living. The great thing being that a lot of their apartment buildings have pools that we can use--which is brilliant as we're now entering the hot season. (The picture was right before Milo left and it's at Matt and Kathy's place--they are an Australian couple here with CMS (Christian Mission Society).

The neighbourhood around the building is one of our favourite parts of living there. There are lots of street food stalls (Milo's favourite was the banana pancake guy) around; there's a small local fruit and vegetable market across the road, there are three small restaurants in our price range (one which sells only pad thai!); there's several coffee places (very important!) of various prices--the cheapest of which is always in our price range! :) It's just a really great place--busy without being too loud or raucous. I'll miss it when we leave!!

Since we are now going to be here for awhile, we are also trying to learn some of the language. It's a tonal language, which makes things a bit more difficult. That means you can say one word and it can mean four different things depending if you raise your voice, or lower it, or keep it flat, etc. It is hard to hear and duplicate! However, we can now shop sort of and ask simple questions in Thai. Very exciting! We can't, however, read or write any of the language--that's really difficult since it's not in the Latin script. Thai is especially helpful when we're in restaurants. The english translation for this dish was snakehead--so naturally we ordered it...only to find out it was only eel... *sigh

Okay, enough about Bangkok, I think. We agreed to stay on starting in January (so this is a January post even though it's April ), but at the beginning of Febraury we headed to India. Next post about that trip coming soon... :)

From frustrations to fun

First, a time update: I know it is currently the middle of March (a time I always remember fondly), but the post is about the middle of January when Milo, Amanda, and I went to the Philippines. I will try to get several posts done in short order so that everyone can be updated on what we are doing...I'll try—say a prayer for me, won't you! :)

We were going to the Philippines in mid-January to join an ALC mission trip. It seemed easy. We would leave Bangkok at midnight and arrive in Manila at 5:30 am, transfer to our connecting flight leaving for Cagayan de Oro at 7:00 am, and be met at the airport upon arrival at 9:00 am Wednesday. Easy!

The best laid plans...

At first things ran smoothly. We arrived in Manila on time but then things started to fall apart. At 7:00 we were informed our connecting flight was canceled due to weather. We waited for the 9:00 am flight...but it was canceled too. So were the 12:00, 1:00, and 4:00 o'clock flights! By that time all the flights for the next day were full, and we were tired, hungry, and really sick of the Manila airport! So...we booked for Friday morning at 7:00 am and decided to spend Thursday in town.

Manila was nice (the sunset above is of Manila Bay). We enjoyed walking around town and getting a flavour of the place. We walked through the park and through the old walled city of Intermuros. We spent some time in Fort Santiago and learned quite a bit about Dr. Jose Rizal: the national hero. Rizal (that's him on the monument to the right) spoke up for a free Philippines and it's widely believed that it was his martyred death that was the catalyst for the Philippine revolution.

The other interesting thing I noticed in Manila was how much Christianity had permeated the culture. Buses and taxis are named after saints; churches of all shapes and sizes abound throughout the city; and most of the people wear crosses or crucifixes. That's not to say, of course, that everyone is a Christian, but it is very interesting to see how the religion has become the culture.

The next day we were back at the airport, though, only to sit there all morning while another three flights were canceled. Finally we gave up and decided to fly to the south of the island where we were going and then catch a bus north to Cagayan. It worked fine—but it made for a long day! We had woken up at 4:30 to get to the airport for our 7:00 am flight, finally flew out at 1:00 pm, arrived in Davao at 2:00 pm, took a taxi to the bus station, got a non-AC bus leaving at about 3:30 pm, and arrived in Cagayan de Oro just before midnight—a mere two days after our scheduled arrival! The picture shows some of the lovely people we met on the bus ride up to Cagayan.

Pastor Bert and his son, Adones, very kindly met us at the bus station at midnight and delivered us to the hotel. The next morning we met the rest of the American team: Colin, Bruce, Scott, Fratt, Randi, Al & Kathy, as well as the rest of the Sedones family. It was nice to finally be there! Saturday was the last day of Pastor training in Cagayan and we enjoyed attending and participating in these last sessions. (Pastor Bert is in the picture to the right with Milo and Amanda.)

The weather was still crazy! The rain was torrential for much of the day. This not only turned the rural roads and paths into mud holes, but was also loud enough on the tin roof to compete with the speaking at times. The church building is located on top of a steep hill and the only way up is a footpath (of 164 steps)....I'll let you imagine the state it was in after six days of rain! (The picture is actually from Sunday after the rain had stopped; but even then the roads were in quite a state, as can be seen.) Despite the weather problems, the seminars seemed to go quite well. There were several hundred pastors and church leaders attending. It was nice to be able to communicate easily with most of the attendees since English is widely spoken in the Philippines.

Late Saturday afternoon, just before the end of the seminars, everyone was split into 10 groups (one foreigner per group) and we prepared a song or a skit for the rest of the attendees. The performances were nice, but what we really liked was the chance to talk one-on-one with our Filipino brothers and sisters.

The next day was Sunday and we were back at the same church for services. On Sunday, Amanda and I helped out by doing some songs, a small talk, and some games with the kids. It was fun! One change from our regular program was the “Christingle” style of the story we acted out (Daniel and the Lion's Den). We had half a dozen princes, half a dozen angels, a king, and lots of lions! The kids enjoyed it, but probably not as much as we did. After some songs we also made frogs. Yeah! :) That was also quite a hit, as it generally is. The day ended with food and snacks for the kids and then lots and lots of pictures! “Just one more!” the kids would chant. So we'd take one more and then the kids would race over to see themselves on our viewfinder. And then “Just one more!” they'd chant again. There are several hundred “just one more” pictures on our cameras!

On Monday we jumped into vans for a six hour drive east to the area where Pastor Bert grew up. There we had more services and then visited seven or so of the local churches. Amanda and I worked with the kids at several of the churches, including during the “Battle of the bands” which took place after the services on Tuesday. It left us both hoarse (we were competing with the bands and had no mikes), but it was good fun. Kids really are a lot of fun, no matter what the culture!

The van ride from Cagayan and back was fun too. We learned some songs in Visian (the local dialect/language), got to know the littlest Sedones kids a bit better, slept, talked, and had a good time (despite being squished in like sardines). The scenery was breathtaking—especially when the road was winding along the coast. And I know this will come as a surprise to those who know me, but I definitely want to visit the Philippines again...and next time I'd love to visit for longer than only 10 days!

"F" words

Dangerous duo to terrible trio to...(freaky? foreign? fearsome? furry? flammable?) four.

(What's a good adjective that starts with F?)

On January first, Tracey L'Esperance arrived in Bangkok just in time for us to head south to the islands. Well, only one island actually: Koh Chang. It was fabulous (fabulous four?): sun, surf, sand...what more could you ask for?! It fit well with Milo's tropical version of White Christmas (think white sandy beach instead of white snow), if you haven't heard it you can ask him about it next time you see him.

One day we went snorkelling—lots of fun (fun four? funny four?). It was an all-day boat trip with snorkelling, swimming, and vast amounts of food. The scenery was gorgeous, the company was friendly (friendly four?), and the water was nice and clear—great for snorkelling. It was my first time snorkelling and Ijust think I might have to go again... :)

The next day we thought we'd try kayaking. There were a few small islands not far from shore, so we paddled out to the closest one. It had a nice little beach on one end and some decent rocky inlets on the other. We picnicked on the beach and paddled into the inlets, frantically (frantic four?) trying to avoid hitting the rock cliffs. :) It was more strenuous to kayak through the sea for several hours than I thought it would be—by the time we were done, I was done!

After four days or so, we decided to head north for a change of scenery. So...we caught a taxi and a ferry and a bus and a skytrain back to Bangkok, and a skytrain and a city bus and a long-distance bus and a songthaw (shared pick-up taxi) and a van up to our house north of Chiang Mai. Actually we stopped in Bangkok for a day or so, but I liked the sentence better strung all together! The main tourist stop in Bangkok as Wat Pho (the temple housing the famous Reclining Buddha). (Famous four? Hmmm, I kinda like that...) It's basically impossible to show big the buddha statue is using a picture, so I'm not even going to try here...check facebook for other pics!

After our stopover in Bangkok, we did head north via the transport noted above. We stayed with a friend for our first few days in the north. (Thanks again Lynda!) She actually lives out of town on the Prem school campus. It was beautiful. And there were bunnies. This made Tracey happy since she'd been comparing everything else to bunnies for the last week (the fish, the cat, Milo, the sand at the beach...). (Fishy four?)

Luckily, we arrived in Chiang Mai just in time for the Winter Carnival (an annual fair—a local one, not one set up for tourists). We went with Lynda and had a fabulous time! I think we sampled almost every possible food there. It was great! We had khao saw (a curried noodle soup—a northern specialty), pad thai, sticky rice in bamboo, fried grasshoppers, quail eggs, hairy sweet noodle stuff, deep-fried squid, meringue-filled wafer-thingys, dried squid, sausages, banana pancakes...basically we just spent all evening eating! It was festive, fun, fattening...and filling (festive four?) (fattening four?...maybe not!).

Elephants! The elephants were fantastic (fantastic four?)! And they reminded Tracey of bunnies. I was pleasantly surprised by the elephant camp. I thought the elephant show would be a bit cheesy, but it was actually quite good. The baby elephants were adorable...and all the elephants were very talented. They played football/ soccer, danced, gave massages, and painted! It was fun to see. They accepted all tips offered by the tourists too. The money was handed back to their riders, and the bananas and sugar cane was quite happily eaten.

By mid-January it was time for Milo, Amanda, and I to head to the Philippines and time for Tracey to head home to her bunnies. So...that's it for the adventures of the (flighty?) four! Well, actually that's all the adventures I'm planning to write about at the moment, not all the adventures we had...you can find out more via the pictures on Facebook...or by cornering one of us at some point in the future (futuristic four?). (And you might want to get us all together or you may just end up with four different versions of each story...)

Between Christmas and New Year's

So...once again I've fallen behind, so here's another picture blog to catch up on what's we've been doing since Christmas! (actually this is just from Christmas to New Years...)

Bangkok river taxis run every 15 minutes on weekdays. It's a good thing they don't only run in the morning 'cause Milo doesn't wake up until afternoon! (Or maybe he was just trying to get close to the money.) Hmm...

Mmmm...coconut milk is lovely after a wander through the temples of Bangkok.

We headed out of town to Kanchanaburi for a few days at the end of December. We stayed in a raft house hostel. It was cute and quiet and served great food! It also offered rather brilliant views of the sunset over the River Kwai.

During WWII, the Japanese used prisoners of war and local labour to build a railway through to Burma as a secure supply route. So many of the POW's and labours died because of harsh treatment by the Japanese, that it became known as the Death Railway.

This part of WWII history was made famous, of course, by the book and movie Bridge Over the River Kwai. We visited the bridge (not the one made famous by the movie—that one was destroyed by the allies only a few months after being built). It was rebuilt in the same place as the old one and, as you can see, is still used today.

Other sections of the railroad are still original though...

This was a particularly brutal section for the labourers to build as they had to cut straight through soil and solid rock with minimal equipment. It was nicknamed Hellfire Pass by the POWs because of how it looked at night by torchlight. The work teams were required to work 12-18 hour shifts in orer to finish it in 12 weeks! By the time it was finished, 70% of the POW crew (and probably equal or greater numbers of local conscripts) had died.

Bamboo rafting on the River Kwai!

If being a soil scientist doesn't work out, Amanda can always consider a career as an elephant trainer.

Okay, that's all for 2008--the first 2009 post will be arriving soon! :)

Sanda and Moe-moe

Amanda and Leona went to Burma for a week in mid-December and quickly morphed into Sanda and Moo-moo (you can see them in the picture to the left). Amanda and I had originally thought to travel through the country a bit, but Sanda and Moe-moe decided to spend their time in Yangon instead. And we're glad they did! Our short time in Burma was wonderful--especially because of all the very wonderful people we were able to meet.

Interesting place, Yangon—once considered the Golden City—the jewel of the Orient, but now it's fallen on hard times. The colonial buildings are stained and crumbling, the streets are paved with dirt and refuse, and the wind often carries the faint smell of garbage or sewage. The current government (which gained power through a military coup in 1962) has done very little for the people it claims to represent. Any attempts at protests tend to be brutally and violently suppressed. Despite this, everyone we met—from the kids working at the teashop to the director of one of the orphanages we visited—was amazing: hospitable, friendly, interesting, and helpful.

We tried to minimize the amount of our money that went to the government by staying at smaller family-run guesthouses, eating at small local restaurants, and avoiding some of the larger tourist attractions with higher entrance fees. We also tried to spread out our money by patronizing different restaurants and stores during our week in Yangon. Perhaps the overall amount of cash we had to spend wasn't that much (and of course some of it did end up in government coffers), but we were happier knowing that as much as possible the money we spent there was helping the locals and not supporting an inhumane and undemocratic regime.

At the first guesthouse we stayed in, we met Jacqueline, an amazing woman from Switzerland who was volunteering with an NGO in Yangon. She was an inspiration to us! She is retired and decided that she could afford to live a quiet life at home, or work as a volunteer overseas....so, she sold her house and her belongings and is now volunteering in SE Asia for several months before moving to Africa. Amazing! We tagged along with her on Saturday. She was going to a picnic with the three different orphanages she was working with (each one had about 25 kids). We were so thankful we were allowed to tag along! We sang songs, played games, did Bible skits, and had a really blessed time. It was interesting to see that several park visitors stop to listen to our singing or to watch the Bible skits—we even had one Buddhist monk and two young Buddhist nuns stop for awhile.

Much of our time in Myanmar was actually spent just on the outskirts of Yangon. There we visited a Bible College and another children's home. We helped out there by teaching English at the college for a few days. The students were great: very hard-working and attentive. They're also amazing singers! On the last day we taught, we asked them to teach us a song in Burmese. It was fun to be able to sing along with them—and I think they enjoyed turning the tables on us and correcting our pronunciation instead of the other way around!

The kids from the Children's Home were so much fun—as kids are everywhere. We had such a great time fellowshipping with them and with their director and Sunday School teacher on Sunday. As a special treat they all came to the Bible College for Sunday service (they don't usually because of the distances involved). We shared a short message aimed at the kids and also taught them the song “Down in My Heart,” which they loved! They were also amazing singers and sang several songs in Burmese as well. Then, just before leaving they came to the door of the pastor's house and sang Christmas carols for us. It was such a poignant moment and I think it is one of the highlights of our short visit to Myanmar.

The government is especially unfriendly to its citizens who aren't Buddhist as well as to anyone who has contact with outsiders (which is one reason the government infinitely worsened the effects of the cyclone by refusing foreign aid), but this isn't the front shown to visitors and we didn't directly witness or experience anything untoward. To the contrary our visit was very pleasant and enjoyable. We did, however, hear several firsthand reports from our Burmese brothers and sisters. Keep them in your prayers!

From hotel to house

The first Sunday we were in Bangkok, way back in November, we found an English church and attended service. After the service we went to the welcome table, explained we were looking for volunteer opportunities and...we've been here ever since! (Here being Christ Church--the English church we found.) We started volunteering at Christ Church the next week--mostly helping them out with the lead up to Christmas. So...we got to organize and set up Christmas crafts for the kids, fold service schedules, make mince pies, help decorate, sing in the choir, etc. It's been quite fun! It was fabulous to have a "home" for Advent and Christmas--it made Christmas more real somehow.

We also started volunteering at World Concern (website: www.worldconcern.org). Like in Beijing, we were helping out with writing/organizing-type things. It's been very interesting to work there and find out more about the work going on by Christian NGO's in Thailand. Saranya, Fon, and Carmen have been really great. They all work with the Child Protection Program, which is the branch we've been volunteering with.

Since we figured we'd be in Thailand for a few weeks, we thought we'd go to one of the Christ Church Bible studies as well. That has been a blessing in many ways. One such way was a rather unexpected material benefit--we ended up with a house to live in instead of our hotel! Gary and Claudia (and their daughter Caitlin) are from the USA and are in Bangkok with Bible Study Fellowship. We were very blessed to stay with them for ten days at the beginning of the month before we headed off to Myanmar. Then, when we got back to Thailand from Myanmar, we housesat for a British couple, Jane and Mike. Both homes have been awesome! It's been so great to have a house after living out of a hotel room for over a month. Thanks to all of you guys!

The days right around Christmas were some of the best times we spent in Bangkok! The carol and candlelight service on the last Sunday of Advent. The kids Christingle service on Christmas Eve. The midnight service Christmas Eve. The Christmas morning service. They were all lovely and even more so since we got to be quite involved.

Anyone know what a Christingle service is? We had never heard of it, but it was lots of fun. It's basically a kid's Christmas service. It varies in format but the two standard parts are the telling of the Christmas story during which the kids all get to dress up and act it out (so there are usually 20 or so shepherds, angels, and wisemen so that everyone can participate), and then the Christingle procession. Each child is given an orange representing the world with a red ribbon around it representing Christ's blood shed for the world, four sticks with dried fruit representing God's goodness going out to the four corners of the world, and a candle representing Jesus the light of the world. After the explanation, the candles are lit and there's a procession around the church representing our task as Christians to take the light of the gospel to the whole earth. It was a really neat service!

Christmas Day was doubly nice too 'cause it was the day we went from the dangerous duo to the terrible trio! Milo arrived at 1:00 am on Christmas Day. So...we sent him to bed for a few hours...and then dragged him to the Christmas party at the vicarage. :) Good company and good food: what more can you ask for!

Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Advent and Christmas as well. All the best for the New Year!

Back to warmer climates...

After a 24 hour train ride from Beijing to Hong Kong, a quick transfer to the airport, and then a 4 hour flight south, we arrived in Bangkok in the wee hours of November 20th. The bus ride downtown was relatively quick and easy, as was finding a place to stay at 2 am! We had considered booking something, but since no one offered a decently priced airport pick-up, we figured we'd just wing it. So, welcome to Bangkok, or, to be completely accurate, welcome to Krung-dēvamahānagara amararatanakosindra mahindrayudhyā mahātilakabhava navaratanarājadhānī purīramya utamarājanivēsana mahāsthāna amaravimāna avatārasthitya shakrasdattiya vishnukarmaprasiddhi. That's it's official name (really!) and it means "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam." :)

The warm weather was probably the first thing we notice upon arrival. It was lovely to arrive in the middle of the night and still be able to walk around without a coat. The weather continued to be nice—warm and sunny without being too hot. It was wonderful to rediscover a whole new wardrobe in our bags. Okay, so this consisted of maybe five pieces of clothing, but when you only have about a dozen pieces, rediscovering five is a big thing! The warm weather also made Amanda happy for another reason: it's ice cream weather again...and while we haven't eaten MacDonald's food over here, we will admit to eating their ice cream. Why? Only 9 baht for a cone (or 12 baht for a dipped one.) That's about 30 cents or so, not bad!

For about the first week in Bangkok, we were staying in the Khaosan Road area, the main backpackers hub. It's a fun area! There are lots of guesthouses, little shops, restaurants, and loads of roadside stands selling everything from pad thai to fresh orange juice to fried grasshoppers (no, we haven't tried them yet). :) We ate most of our meals from these stands and, in general, the food was really good. And cheap! Fresh prawn pad thai for 25 baht (about a dollar), mango smoothies for 20 baht, or vegetarian green curry for 30 baht. Mmmm...I just ate dinner, but I'm getting hungry just writing this!

However, the two main downsides to the Khaosan area (in our humble opinions) are the constant 24/7 activity and the huge number of travellers! Okay, so the 24/7 activity is nice when you arrive at 2 am without booking a hostel, but other than that it gets old fast—especially since our room overlooked the street. It was never really loud, but, still, there was always noise, no matter what time it was—it was crazy! Also, it's lots of fun to hook-up with other travellers and exchange tips and stories, but there comes a point that you think you could be at home (albeit home with tropical weather and everyone wearing hippie clothes) and you begin to think it might be nice to meet some Thai people, since you are, after all, in Thailand! :)

Of course there are Thai people in Khaosan road. The tuk-tuk drivers for instance. I hope they aren't representative of the Thai people though! They're all very friendly, but perhaps not too honest. They'll all tell you that the site you want to visit is closed, but they'd love to take you to see the Big Buddha. And the Sitting Buddha. And the Golden Mountain. All for only 10 baht! We finally agreed to this because we figured riding in a tuk-tuk was one thing you should do while in Thailand anyways, and then we found out why the ride was so cheap. It turned out that while they did take you to all the above mentioned sites, they also took you to several stores along the way. “Please just look—just for five minutes! If you look I will get a coupon for my petrol. Just five minutes—if you don't like it don't buy—just look!” We went and looked. But we didn't buy. I guess the set-up must work often enough, though, because every tuk-tuk driver in the area is offering the same deal.

We've actually sampled quite a bit of the transportation here. Besides the tuk-tuks, we've ridden river taxis, regular taxis, buses, vans, the subway, and the skytrain. We enjoyed the buses primarily because we enjoy most things that don't involve too many other foreigners (it's more fun to “go local”). Also because of the price. It was always a surprise actually, half of the time we'd get on a bus and pay 7.5 baht each, and the rest of the time we'd get on a bus and it would be free! It turns out that the government decided to make half of the buses in Bangkok free to help out those who were struggling because of the economic crisis.

The river taxis are the most fun—and the ride up or down the river gives just a taste of what life might have been like a hundred years ago. And, I must confess that even though I am the historian and even though I bugged my sister about doing the movies tour of Europe (Me: I can't wait to visit the Sistine Chapel! Michelangelo painting on the ceiling are... Her: Michelangelo...ceiling...oh right! “Trapped under ceiling in Rome”, that was in Ever After! Me: *sigh*), despite all that, I admit that I based my historical perspective of Thailand on the movies The King and I and Anna and the King. For all fellow fans, you'll remember King MongKut of course. His statue stands in a park close to where we are currently living (how we ended up moving will be covered in the next post).

King MongKut also, interestingly enough, donated the land for the English Church in 1861. His son donated a different plot of land and some extra funds to the Anglicans when they wanted to build a bigger church in a more accessible location in 1905. His only stipulation was that the church must be open to all protestant denominations and not restricted to just one. Therefore, we are currently attending (and volunteering at incidentally) a non-denominational Anglican church. A bit of an anomaly, no?