annajoy

oh boy. weird day yesterday! i was at church this morning rehearsing with the choir when the pastor came in with people who had cameras and recording equipment. this is not that unusual, as my church and pastor have done some controversial things in the past, and the media has been there several times to do news stories. so they set up the cameras etc, no big. then as church was starting a woman came in alone, with the cameras following her, and sat down right in front of me and my friends. she introduced herself during the welcoming of new visitors and did not say anything about the cameras. but they were clearly there for her. they stayed on her (and us) for most of the service, occasionally panning around the sanctuary and capturing various parts of the service.

at one point she turned around and complimented us on how nice the choir sounded, and we had a brief conversation about how great the church is and how people visiting for the first time often have very powerful experiences. as this conversation was happening, a woman holding a big boom mic lowered it down among us. how odd!

afterward she turned to us as we were hugging and greeting everyone around us, and chatted with us for a few more minutes, talking about church and how she ended up there. we learned that she was one of the women on the show "Starting Over", a daytime reality show about women who are trying to make a change in their lives. i had heard of this show, but never watched.

three of my friends and i continued talking with her, and listened to her talk about how she had lived a very lonely life, and about how lost and isolated she felt. tears came into her eyes when she talked about how she had never believed that a church like this one existed. we hugged her, told her how happy we were that she had visited, etc. all very sincere, but still a little odd because the camera and mic were on us.

then she asked us if we would like to have coffee. three of us said sure, thinking it meant walking to caribou or starbucks a block away. what actually happened was we got in a mini van, equipped with microphones and lights, and went to the house where the show takes place. we pulled up into the garage and there were technicians waiting there to put body mics on us and lead us into the house.

ok, at this point i was really not believing this was happening! who wakes up and goes to church thinking something like this would happen??

so we get a tour of the house, meet a couple of the other women who live there, and then settle into the kitchen to talk and drink coffee, the cameras following us at all times.

we proceeded to sit together for two hours and have a very frank discussion about fears, identity and self esteem, faith, relationships, families, and friends. there were three other people in the room, recording every word. while i never forgot that anything i said could end up on television (not that that stopped me from saying dumb things or things i would not necessarily want my parents to hear), it was pretty easy to connect with and listen to these women, talk openly, and feel relaxed.

i have no idea if any of it at all will appear on the show, or if i will ever talk to this women again (we gave her our email addresses, and i hope she contacts us, she was bright, courageous, and interesting), but it does not really matter. it was a trip! an adventure. and it could have very easily been any other people who happened to be sitting behind her in church.