Photos: Congregating since 2011 — shouts, songs, and "preach-o-rama"
About 85 people, nearly all from the state of Chuuk in Micronesia, have gathered as they do every Sunday afternoon at the Christ Lutheran Church on Western Avenue for a service in their native Austronesian language of Chuukese. About half of the congregants are children.
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Colorful: A line of women in bright dresses, one carrying a baby, file out of the Christ Lutheran Church following a May 5 service.
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Response: During a song, young girls from the Apostolic Church International of Micronesia in Guilderland, each with her hair pulled neatly back, raise their hands above their heads and sway to the music.
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Sisters-in-law Tania Job, at left, the wife of an assistant pastor, and Terly Hernist said after the May 5 service that they like Guilderland. The people are “very nice,” they said, and there are “no problems, like burglaries.”
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Impassioned: A boy at a recent service of the Apostolic Church International of Micronesia in Guilderland shakes his fist as a song says, “I don’t know what you came for, but I came to praise the Lord.”
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
The Micronesian church service at Christ Lutheran Church in Guilderland on May 5 began with this young girl in a yellow-and-blue flowered dress standing barefoot on the altar, singing a solo.
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Pastor Robert Raed of the Apostolic Church International of Micronesia, which holds its services in Guilderland, looks down at the first of many boys to try to inspire the congregation during a “preach-o-rama.”
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Oblivious: As women and girls in colorful dresses all around her clap to the music during a service of the Apostolic Church International of Micronesia, a young girl is in a world of her own.