Most things are bigger on account of them having more space to do be able to do things.
Big for example, as in Hurricane Matthew.
Now, when we heard of Hurricane Matthew we were in Savannah. We happened to get talking to a lady shop assistant who was very knowledgeable about weather forecasting. She showed us the predicted path of Hurricane Matthew and where it was likely to track.
It looked like it could easily head straight up the east coast of America, via Florida. All of the seaside cities might be affected, including most of those we had visited. Savannah being one of them.
Call us a pair of wimps, but we headed WEST more or less immediately! In fairness to us, we were thinking of going to Atlanta anyway, so we just got on with it sooner rather than later. The plan was to go to Louis Giglio's church there. The Passion City Church, Atlanta.
However, it was just a bit too far to do in one day, so we went to a city called Macon.
We both thought Macon was in France.
Well, we KNOW it is in France, a bit above Lyon. But it is also over here in USA too.
Funny that!
Pick-up trucks, - they are bigger. Nice!
RVs, - they are bigger, and although Harvey is big to us, it's not to these Yanks! A lot of RVs are the size of 50 seater coaches in UK. These are a couple of typical examples we saw this morning on our campsite.
The brown one, last night, was lit up like a Christmas tree, - lights all along the top and sides, and even underneath the entrance step. It had an awning the full length of one side, that projected out as large as a UK seaside shop in summer.
You could fit a small gospel choir in either of these machines and still have room for a grand piano!
Churches, are all generally bigger too! And bucket loads of them. They are often on major highways and in very prominent positions.
Our revised goal, after abandoning the Atlanta idea for church, was to head for Macon, Georgia, and find a church there.
A quick stop at McDonalds for some wifi, and we short-listed a handful.
We drove past one of them and decided it was not what we were looking for.
We wanted to experience a BIG church here. Mostly we have been in churches with similar size congregations to our own churches back home.
It might have been a disaster! What if we went somewhere and found it as dead as a do-do? What if no one spoke to us? What would it be like? What if? What if?!
The Assembly GA in Macon was where we went. An Assemblies of God church, - our roots.
One of the things we think is great is that people are generally more God-aware, and access to church is dead easy. So it was here.
Straight off the main drag, into the spacious car park.
We received a warm welcome! That was a good start. Dwight and his wife directed us towards a cool drink in a welcome area lounge. A smart welcome pack and a tee-shirt each "to go".
Now, we all know that you can't judge a book by its cover, as we discovered early on here with church, a few weeks ago.
This place was different.
It all swung into action and the service started.
Instantly we felt acclimatised! It was great to be here. All very slick and professional, but equally also very sensitive and humble. What a mix.
The auditorium was large enough to hold about 600-700 people. The band started up with 4 clicks from the drummer, - and we were off. No hype. No sensation. Just excellence. A complete mixture of songs, some new, some borrowed, and some old. All fed our thirsty souls.
A stonking sermon by the Lead Pastor, Mark Merrill. 40 minutes and never bored for one second as he delivered a soundly balanced exposition, as his introduction to the upcoming series he was going to preach. If that was the intro, then we are hoping we can listen to the rest online!! It was no nonsense, down to earth, basic, practical life application theology all rolled into one. And delivered at high speed in order to get through it all.
Ruth was particularly affected by what she heard and has already made some life-changing decisions as a result.
We left to digest a steak-house dinner in Aussie's, and to digest the morning's worship. What a day we've had.
