Saint Thomas Baptist Church…

Today was a crazy day, I went to church, got taken to church, had the church take me to church one more time for old times sake and walked out wondering why I hadn’t attended a Sunday service at Saint Thomas Baptist Church in the Beautiful Black Community of North Preston, Nova Scotia.

Now truth is I was really going to support and witness my friend Vanessa get baptized as I’m not of any religion although I am spiritual but man oh man this Sunday service was off the chain. I’m not committed to any church or religious organizations however I am spiritual. I’ve gone to a few local churches, 3 others to be specific and none of them quite felt like it felt for me today at St. Thomas Baptist Church (STBC). Truth be told this church had a “home” feeling to it, like everyone knew everyone kind of feeling…even the first timers were fitting in like it wasn’t their first time there.

When you enter those front doors of the church you are welcomed by a member of the church and community with a huge smile and big ole hug. In we go, I’m with 3 other friends….it felt like home right away. I looked around and in every row were beautiful Queens dressed in our cultural attire, clearly they were representing our black heritage for black history month. There were head wraps and vibrant prints from yellow to green to purple to orange and blue and so on…it was breathtaking. The men were dressed in their Sunday suits looking dapper as can be.

There is welcoming music and the mic gets passed around to first time visitors and hugs are given. They share their name and what brought them to the church. This one young guy grabs the mic with so much joy in his face, he says his name (which I didn’t catch) and says he was at an event last night and that event brought him to the church today. He was no more than maybe 16-18 at most. I didn’t know what event he was referring too but I was sure the event must have been put on by the church or the church was some part of it because he was into what he was experiencing for his first time at the church.

The glory didn’t stop there, it was time to celebrate…yes celebrate some birthdays…A beautiful birthday song was sung for a few of the people who celebrated their birthdays that week. It was wonderful and uplifting I was consistently smiling and feeling joy.

The baptism gets started. There are two ladies dressed in all white, one is my friend Vanessa. Vanessa has an amazing voice but she is a super shy person and usually doesn’t sing publicly but today she decided to bless the whole place with the hymn “Oh It Is Jesus” and let me tell you she brought the house down, she had everyone on their feet singing praises to the higher power.

After Vanessa and the other lady were dunked under water and baptized the church opened up the baptism to anyone in the church, I mean ANYONE! Wow! I immediately looked over at the young man I mentioned above and he was in his seat bursting with joy. He jumped up out of his seat and made his way up to the water. I just knew that was going to happen, I think we all did to be completely honest. One by one the Christians made their way up to the water tank, they ranged in ages. All of a sudden Vanessa’s daughter walked up to be baptized, mother and daughter on the same day how wonderful and then the other lady’s sister, then someone else’s little girl and on and on…It was something else, it really was. By the end of the baptisms there had been at least 10 unexpected people get baptized today…one could say the spirit took over them.

There were some scriptures read, a moment dedicated to the teachings of the children in the church, the senior choir was a sight to see, they were the elders of the community, they were the history of the community they were the wisdom and they were the ones that sacrificed for the next generations.

Tithes and Offerings is next on the bulletin. Now at this point this is where I generally get a bit annoyed while attending other churches. I get irritated by the way they ask for tithes but I’m not going to get into that what I am going to praise is the subtle way it was announced that the baskets were coming around, beautiful music in the background and people just chatting away while the baskets went around for collection. Thank you for this approach, people will give what they can, there is no need to “guilt talk” people into giving.

There were more prayers, not only for those in the community but also prayers said for the family that lost their 7 children in a house fire, for the man who lost his life by a hit and run, they prayed for the sick both mentally and physically and prayed for anyone in need of uplifting, it was beautiful to see so much love in the building.

About 2.0 hours later, I thought things were coming to a close but then another special thing happened. The daughter of the late Reverend Donald D. Skeir presents Reverend Wallace Smith Sr. with the very robe her dad wore when he was the Reverend for the churches of the surrounding black communities, including Saint Thomas Baptist Church. You see as told by Rev. Smith Sr., Rev. Skeir led the way for him and most of the church leaders that followed him. As the tears rolled down Rev. Smith Sr.’s face as well as many members of the church, I felt honored to see the exchanging of such a gift that we all knew meant more than words could ever describe.

The Sermon “Still Standing By Faith” starts, it’s about the ancestors of North Preston and about survival. It should be written in a book the way it was told, survival of our ancestors left to fend for themselves and how they built a thriving black community in the process, a community they made many sacrifices for. It was AMAZING.

Once the sermon ends we’re almost to the end of this amazing adventure of spirituality. Then some exchange of who was going to sing next with some chuckles between Rev. Smith Sr. and the choir, it appeared they were handing the mic over to Rev. Smith Sr. to lead the way. The music starts to play and Rev. Smith Sr. doesn’t like the key they are playing in, he sweetly suggests they change the key to his key and they obliged and we all had a good chuckle…the Rev. wanted it in his key, end of discussion hahaha. The singing just brought everyone to their feet. If you think it ended here, you are mistaken. After the closing prayer Rev. Smith Sr calls up The super talented Sanctified Brothers to close church out with their amazing voices. I felt like my cup had runneth over today. If you ever want to visit the Saint Thomas Baptist Church in North Preston, do not hesitate…all faiths and people are welcomed…it is a loving community and church that has their arms wide open for everyone, no matter race, religion or skin color. The church is the heart of a community built on faith.

Thank you for having me today ~Holla