God is a cauliflower

My dad has been video recording (I can't say taping) the church services at Grace Lutheran for as long as I can remember.  When I was in elementary school I would sit up in the balcony with him and Tim (I) and half pay attention and half read.  He is well known in town for recording CMT and various school plays.  I have watched segments of the church services, usually when we are playing bells or when something out of the ordinary happened.  The service is broadcast on the public access channel in Palo Alto, which in turn streams its content on the internet.  Every Sunday at 9pm I watch this strem from Istanbul.  The familiar songs, voices, faces and liturgies are very comforting.  Tonight I am watching the service from September 11th.  For some reason, September 11th is not a big deal here, but just based on the facebook posts from last week, it was almost the only deal back home.  The readings were on forgiveness and Pastor Matt is talking about how easy it is to destroy, but how hard it is to build back up.  These were the readings I heard last week too; the Lutherans and the Anglicans use the same lectionary. 

Two weeks ago I went to the Dutch Reformed church, last week was the Anglicans, today I went to Saint Anthony's Catholic church.  The first was not enough liturgy, the second was nothing but, and today was just weird.  It was a familiar structure, a good amount of liturgy, but it was weird.  The choir was, as far as I could tell, entirely Asian (Vietnamese?) women.  The officiants were all black, including the priest who preached.  It made me think of going to church in Cameroon in 2001.  What has surprised me at all three services was that no one spoke to me, to ask if I was new, to even ask my name.  The first two were small 30-50 people and it seemed like they were a pretty stable group, so I would have guessed that a new person would have been obvious.  Today, I would guess there were over 200 people at the service, including many obvious tourists, so it was not as odd that no one approached me.  It also surprised me that none of the churches had an announcement/information page. 

So, what am I looking for?  What is important to me about a church?  I know that I am looking for an off campus community.  I am looking for friendly faces with similar backgrounds and histories.  I am looking for a comfortable place.  Did I find it?  I dont know.  Unlike in the Goldilocks fairytale, there was no 'just right' but I came to Istanbul to get out of my comfort zone, out of my rut, so I am going to give all three another look, not to find a perfect fit, but to seek people who are willing to accomdate my discomfort.  And I can always get a good bowl of porriage at 9pm on public access channel 30.  God really is a caring father.