Sunday, November 2, 2008

We got punked..

I mean... fellowshipped.

So, Graham's co-worker invited us to dinner at his house Saturday night. We didn't really want to go, so we tried to think of excuses, other "plans".. any way out possible!

The icing on the cake was the call 30 minutes beforehand about a change of plans. Turns out, we were going to a birthday party for a friend/family member?.. "More food" was offered as an explanation and consolation. Graham and I tried to think of excuses desperately to avoid the future awkward situation, but to no avail. We were stuck... and tricked into going to this party.

Only on the way to the party did Graham mention his co-worker's religion: The Church of Christ (Iglesia ni Cristo--the Filipino-based religion). He said this is a typical move to fellowship people into their church and most likely we're going to a church-sponsored party. Great.. Not only was this going to be awkward, but we were going to a different church's activity... i.e. MORE awkward!

So when we got there, it wasn't that bad. There were enough people that we could sit and eat without having to socialize too much. The food was disgusting actually.. There was some traditional Filipino food items: eggplant with fermented bean curd, sweet spaghetti with cut-up hot dogs, brown chicken wings with soggy skin and beans, and hot dogs. If it weren't for the delicious homemade rolls, I probably would've thrown up right there.

A lot of the people were Filipino of course, but there were some white people.. the "ministers". They all told us to come back again and that they hoped to see us again. We left after an hour, and Graham's co-worker escorted us to our car. He mentioned the word "fellowshipped" and "church", which solidified our conjecture that this was a missionary attempt. Graham told him we already have a church that we go to, and thanked him for inviting us. We laughed our heads off the entire drive home.

Life lesson: There's no such thing as a free dinner.

7 comments:

Jules AF said...

ew

Jacob said...

Sounds exciting. Just feel blessed you were the type of person they wanted in their church. Call up the coworker and invite him to one of your ward functions now. That would be freaking hilarious.

Sue said...

I agree -- turnabout is fair play. Ask them to the ward Christmas party/dinner.

Tara said...

That is awesome. Now you guys should invite them over for dinner and tell them some other friends are coming (the missionaries).

By the way, you're sure they won't find your blog, right? haha

Sarah said...

Now you know what other people feel like when we invite them to church activities. Just kidding. Kind of. but it can be a good experience to help you know what to do so others feel comfortable when trying to share with them.... Hopefully people feel that there is something "different" (not weird) when they come to our stuff...

Shewi128 said...

Without revealing too much about Graham's co-worker, it wouldn't be appropriate for Graham to invite him to church since Graham is in a direct line of authority over him.. However, it would be a nice payback!

Shannon said...

Eek. I almost vomited just reading your description of the food. I always feel SO awkward when other religions missionaries or whatever try to fellowship or whatever. It almost intimidates me even more to be a missionary because I assume other people feel the same way I do. Blah. You only think I'm a good person. ;)

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