Although visiting in Gee’s Bend is quite
church like, I always want to attend Sunday service. This year I carry Sammy to
Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church; it’s the church where Martin Luther
King, Jr spoke, and Mary Ann Pettway is in the choir. We drive up to the brick
building as Sunday School is ending, a bit early for the main event, so we sit
in the quiet comfort of the rental car’s AC, looking. A very large woman in a
white suit carrying a massive watermelon greets a second large lady, putting
the melon in the gleaming trunk of a big white car.
It
happens to be Homecoming on this particular Sunday, and we are there for close
to four hours. The sermon itself is over an hour, with the pastor singing half
of it. He talks about evil, he speaks of gratitude. The congregation responds. The
choir belts out lovely punctuation. There are two collection events. The
deacons speak. We are called on to speak, we are welcomed to the church. We
watch squirmy children, teenaged boys elbowing each other, shirts pressed,
tucked into pants that hang low. Finally it is over and we are invited to lunch
in the fellowship hall. Women with aprons covering church clothes stand over
large stainless steel trays filled with mac and cheese, greens, fried chicken.
They spoon dollops onto Styrofoam plates. The room has a baptismal pool; it is
painted aqua and has a painting of Jesus on the wall that was done by a member
of the church. I am sad that no one has come forward on this day wishing to be
baptized.
