Feelin' like a redneck

When we were in SF, one of the guys at church asked me "What is your ethnicity?"
And I relplied that while there's some Germans, Poles, and Native Americans in my family history, "I'd have to describe my cultural group as "redneck."" And for the most part, that's still very true.

Brian is pastoring again, and he's very happy about it. It's obvious that he's really missed having a place to serve. He's now associate pastor at an area church. (And we didn't even have to move. Yippeee!)

Our new church has a large Native American population. About half the church either is affiliated with a tribe, or related to/married to tribal members. And just like in Nome and San Francisco, I have to accept that there's a lot of things I just won't understand because this isn't my culture. But sometimes it gets kind of perplexing...

One Sunday as I was dealing with the very social Mimi's desire to run all over the church and "talk to my people, Mama!" I heard a voice behind me.

"Hellooo, my Native American friend!" It was the woman who was greeting people at the door, who identifies herself as Chocktaw and Cherokee.
I looked in the direction she was facing and saw that she was talking to the chairwoman of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council! Apparently this is a running gag between the two of them.

Is sports a religion?

It's summer-time, and that means only one thing at our church--time for CCU. The Chinese Christian Union's summer sports are in full swing, and our church has at least seven different teams participating.

This means that Brian's schedule for evenings this week looks something like this:
Monday: Recreation League Volleyball 7:25pm, 8:55pm
Tuesday: Competitive League Volleyball 6:30pm, 8:15pm
Gold Division Basketball 8:30pm
Wednesday: Bronze Division Basketball 7:30pm
Friday: Youth Division Basketball 8:30pm

Now when the Good Lord was creating mankind and passing out athletic ability, He looked at my family and said, "Why make them embarrass themselves in public?" and passed us over. Consequently, I don't play sports. I scream loudly at any game I go to, but I'm not very "athletically inclined."

But sometimes, this disinclination towards sports makes me feel isolated from the rest of the congregation. I love my church, but from time to time I really feel like a fish out of water. (It's like the plot of a strange reality TV show: Take one redneck woman, place in an urban church in San Francisco...)

For example, at Friday's basketball game, I was sitting next to one of the teenage boys from our church. And this is what I heard him yelling: "Look at the muscles on Tony-he got them from Taiwan!"

Now I know full well that fourteen year old boys yell all kinds of strange things in public, whether or not it's at a sporting event. But what on earth is that supposed to mean?