Speak about the church in Aek Kanopan, I experienced several surprises here.

1. I got the parish name from mr. google, completed with the address and phone number. On Saturday night, I called the office. After long rings, a man picked up the phone. Then I asked about the Sunday mass schedule. But he said that there will be no mass tomorrow because the pastor was requested to deliver mass at another place. He also said that usually the mass is available only on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd week, meanwhile on the 4th week, the pastor certainly serves the mass at stasi.
Then I asked about the nearest church where the mass will be available. After thinking, he said that there is another church at Pulau Raja. It’s about 5 km from here, around 20 minutes driving. He said that the mass will start at 9.30am.

So the day after, we went to Pulau Raja, looking for the church. Asking several people on the road, finally we can found it at 9.50am. I thought we were so late. But why are there so many people in front of the church? And surprisingly it’s not a catholic church, but everyone led us to come here. So then I asked someone there, ‘Ini Gereja Katolik ya? Mau ada misa kan ya? Kok gereja nya bukan Gereja Katolik?’ Someone answered me that the mass will start soon and it is. So officially, it started at 10am then, not 9.30am.
About other question, no one answer, so I conclude that it is borrowed from other community.

A week after, we again came here because I remembered that it was the 4th week so there were no mass at Aek Kanopan. In the last mass, there was an announcement that the mass will start at 9 sharp. When we came at 9am, there was no one there so that we confused and tried to remember what was announced last week. We decided to wait and yes, it was finally started at 9.30am.

Conclusion: the schedule is never on time so if you want to attend the mass at Pulau Raja, you just need to come 30 mins after the said schedule.

2. I think the people who attended the mass in Pulau Raja were not more than 100 people. So everyone knows each other. And because we’re ‘an English man in New York’, so people easily recognized us as a stranger. On the second coming, someone finally asked about who we are, where we are coming from, etc. But they were surprised when we said that we live at Aek Kanopan. They said that the church here is bigger, so why we should come this far to Pulau Raja. When I said that there is no mass at Aek Kanopan, they said that it’s impossible. So after that, we directly went to Aek Kanopan’s church and guess what! People were just finished the mass. Ooohhh.. why is it so difficult to get a valid information here?? I’ve prepared myself by calling the office before coming, but still, I’m disoriented. So I asked everyone about the mass schedule. They said that it’s 8am on Sunday. And we also try to find the schedule at the announcement board in front of the church. But it was only mentioned as Sunday morning, without specific time.

3. On next Sunday, we came here at 8.10am. We were late. We were. But no one was here except a family – one man, one woman, and one baby -.
From him I know that the mass will start at 9am today since it was Easter. Ooohhh… not againnnnn… We have asked this last week, but no one told us.

Conclusion: Oh my God..