Our friend Delorus took us down to South Central LA for some gospel music. We arrived about ten minutes to 4:00 when the service was to begin. The place was packed, the church pews were full and we were directed up to the balcony. The balcony filled immediately. Paper fans were quickly distributed among us. So quickly that we weren’t able to snag one. About 15 minutes after 4:00 the keyboards began to ring out and the singers began their entrance , marching down the aisle to the stage. They swayed to the left and then to the right and kept marching in and marching in and marching in. Soon the stage was overflowing with singers. The energy was swelling and I suddenly realized the importance of the fans. It was HOT!! Delorus was able to borrow a fan from the woman next to her and Rock grabbed a program left behind from the morning’s church service and sitting between them I was able to remain cool. 

Several singing groups performed as the cast of singers on the stage rotated off and on. Then the pastor got up and began the lengthy donation process. The entire congregation downstairs got up, filed to the front of the church and made their donation, one at a time. It was much like taking communion in the Catholic Church. One benefit to sitting In the balcony was that they just passed the baskets (and they were huge baskets!) around and it went rather quickly.