Topical Blog Post #3: 100w Fish out of Water

Purple Shirted Soulful Singers and Smiling Strangers
by Justin Riray

Being a tall skinny Asian guy in the middle of a building full of black people, I felt slightly awkward.

I attended the Sunday service of a black Baptist church, Emmanuel Baptist Church in north San Jose this weekend.

My homework assignment for one of my classes was called “Fish out of Water,“ in which I would have to put myself in a situation where I would feel uncomfortable. To get the most out of the experience, I decided to sit in the front-middle section of the church.

The church had the usual service layout. They sang songs, prayed, collected money, and had a speaker deliver a message about how to incorporate God into our everyday lives.

Though, the flavor of the entire mass was full of warmth and soul.
I wasn’t nervous at all, until I parked my car and saw that I was most likely the only non-black person there. Though, there were a couple Latino people in attendance.

I could feel everyone staring at me. It wasn’t in a bad way, but in a curious way, like, “Is that kid lost?”

It’s funny that, the night before as I was planning my outfit for church, I thought to myself, “Hmm, I think I’ll wear purple. That is a good color for a Sunday mass at a Baptist church.”

I thought myself a bit prejudiced, but to my surprise the entire choir was wearing purple.

The choir and band combination was brilliant. I haven’t heard such uplifting music in a long time.

There were kids younger than me who sang like angels with more soul than I thought God could fit in one building.

One boy, who looked no older than 19, led the choir in an amazing piece of music. When his solo came on, he could hit notes Beyonce would sing, and did it with ease and spirit.

Despite being a different race, at least we shared somewhat of the same beliefs and morals.

They must have been happy to see me come to their church. Most churches love seeing newcomers attend their services and gatherings.

At one point in the middle of the ceremony, a reverend asked all the visitors to stand up as the church welcomed them. Before I stood up, most of the people were already looking at me.

It felt great as I looked around and saw tons of smiling faces. They were real smiles, not the forced kind.

They even had a portion of the service where everyone got to get up and greet one another. A bunch of very nice people gave me a great handshake, a welcoming smile, and thanked me for coming to their church.

Although it looked like I was completely out of place, by the end of church, I felt very much a part of them.

As I walked out, passed peopled talking and hugging, I thought to myself, “How could there be such an exciting church and why was I raised in a boring church? No fair.”

My “Fish out of Water” assignment turned out to be nothing of that sort. I guess God is full of surprises, people just need to be open to them.