Crowded Streets ... Empty Pews

It is great to be back home! Nothing like your own bed to have a great night's sleep. I thank God that I was able to manage mysystem over the 6 weeks we were away in Eastern Europe, UK and walking the Greenways in the Czech Republic. It was indeed a learning journey for me. But more about that journey later.

Woon Yi and I spent the last 4 days of our "epic" 6-week holiday in Hallstatt, a small one-main-street village doted with restaurants and shops. The 923 residents have built their houses into the hill slopes and along the shores of Hallstatt lake which lies in the Salzkammergut region of Austria. Made popularby a Korean drama - Spring Waltz, it is also a UNESCO-WORLD Heritage Site with a 7000 year history of salt culture. Alexander Humboldt, a famous explorer described it as "the most beautiful lakeside resort in the world"!

Things may have changed over the years, especially the number of visitors literally

flooding the streets of Hallstatt, especially in the summer months. Many are day-trippers

with numerous tours schedulinga short stop-over for sight-seeing and souvenir shopping.

On our last Sunday morning there, we decided to attend service at the Protestant church in town.The only other church was a Catholic church up on the hill with a beautiful and interesting cemetery. We timed our breakfast and reached the church ten minutes before service time. The church was empty except for two men. One was practicing on the guitar and the other was slotting in the hymn page numbers we assume was to be sung that morning.

The church bell peeled on that dull, overcast Sunday morning, to announce the start of the service. People started to stream in. The main doors were closed (probably to prevent

interruptions to the proceedings by curious tourists) and the service began. The black ro

bed pastor walked to the altar and we recognized him as the "guitar playing" man. As it turned out, the pastor was a one-man operator. He led the service, accompanied the singing with his

guitar, saidar, said the prayers, climbed the steps to the pulpit to deliver the sermon and closed the service with prayers at the altar. He then moved to the church doors, threw them open and greeted his parish for the morning - all 13 of us!

We did not understand a word of German but managed to sing the hymns quite robustly, enjoying the tunes although the words held no meaning for us. We were after all, singing to the Lord and He would have understood what was in our hearts. And as the service continued, the sun shone through the grey clouds and through the beautiful, coloured windows of the church.

We contributed to their collection and shook the pastor's hand introducing ourselves as Methodist visitors from Singapore. "Ah, Singapore ... Methodist ..." he said, "and you could not understand anything?" We apologized that we could not understand German but told him that we were glad to have attended his service. He smiled, pleased we were sure. The church bells rang the end of the one hour service as we walked out into the glorious sunshine.

We then joined the throng of Hallstatt visitors on the streets. We felt sad for the pastor. We think that at least 4 of us were tourists. Was this his weekly attendance? Perhaps many attended the Catholic church up on the hill. Europe is after all predominantly Catholic.

Well, maybe we should be glad. Glad that 13 souls were worshipping the Lord that morning. Praise the Lord for His mercy and goodness. Maybe one day, there will be crowded pews and empty streets on Sunday mornings in the beautiful lakeside village of Hallstatt! Amen!

(Sorry about the alignment of the words. After I inserted the photos, things went wonky. I tried many times to rectify it but to no avail. I trust you will be able to figure things out. Too tired to try for the 10th time!!!)