Looking to the East

A number of years ago, the Doobie Brothers sang about a place around San Antonio, Texas called China Grove and sang of people "...looking to the East."

I've always found the East/West distinctions fascinating. When you're in India, China or Japan you are considered "in the East." If you're from any of those places, you're "from the East," or "Eastern."

If you're American, British, French, Italian etc., you're considered "Western."

If you're from Kansas or Nebraska, you're from the Midwest, while if you're from Saudi Arabia or Lebanon, you're from the Middle East.

All of these considerations taken for their value, no matter how far east you travel, there is more East to cover and when Horace Greely said, "Go west young man," where was the intended stopping point?

My senseless musings aside, Ascension Church, located in the northeastern region of a western country will have a bit of an Eastern flavor this week when the sitar and tabla will be a part of our musical ensemble this week in worship service.

A group of musicians will be visiting us this week who perform Indian music in the Hindi language known as Yeshu Bhakti (devotion to Jesus). They will be performing a special concert this Sunday evening and the musicians will be participating in our morning worship. While we expect it to be a great experience to have these instruments during the worship service (how often do you here a sitar and/or tabla on Sunday morning services?), we are more excited about the outreach opportunity these musicians present in their evening concert. Given the multicultural complexion of Queens, these kinds of events are of great significance in the life of the church. Please pray that God brings a wonderful variety of people to us this week and speaks to their hearts with the Gospel through the music.