We spent the night at another motel, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, then drove across the state to Alabama. When planning the route (with the ‘no highways’ option, so the roads were quiet and interesting) we spotted Toddtown. It appeared as a name on the map, and when we zoomed in, there appeared to be a road and a few houses. But it wasn’t far from our route, and we liked the name so decided to do a brief detour and photograph the town signpost.

It was Sunday, so we also discussed church, and whether to look online to find one to attend. I suggested that we just drove, and at about 10:30 we looked for a church, wherever we were, and attended their morning service. We had a plan.

The drive was pleasant—it’s what we like to do. We drove through several small towns, some richer than others. Unlike England, which tends to have a mix of houses in each town, the US tends to have towns that are either full of rich people, or ‘white collar workers’ or ‘blue collar workers.’ In Alabama, although race segregation is no longer a thing, most of the poorer towns seemed to have only black residents, and the richer towns were predominately white.

At about 10am, I started to look at the churches we passed, and then checked online for their service times. Most had an 11am service. One church, which looked promising, had an ‘all white congregation’ in the review, so we avoided that one. We arrived in Toddtown at 10:45. There was a road, a few houses, and a church (which wasn’t marked on Google maps). Perfect. A man arrived and we asked whether we could attend the service—he said we could—we went inside.

The church was wonderful, we received such a warm welcome. There were not many people, but I think everyone spoke to us, and there was something genuine in their welcome, they made us feel very at home. The service was slightly pentecostal in flavour—not something we are used to—but it was lovely. I felt I was amongst people who had come to worship God, and it was good to join them. We were the only white people, and I wondered whether if one of them had attended an all-white church they would have received such a warm welcome. I suspect not (which is perhaps unfair of me, I don’t know what the white churches in Alabama are like).

During the service, various people arrived at different times. There was a choir, all dressed in white, and a pianist. The pastor was a man, and he welcomed us from the pulpit when we arrived and then came and spoke to Husband during a break. (I think men and women probably had different roles in the church, although they had female deacons and the singing was led by a woman—but it was definitely men who welcomed Husband, and women who welcomed me.) The men who took the collection had matching red blazers. The congregation were all dressed smartly, the women wore quite fancy clothes so I was very pleased I had worn a dress (although I think they would have welcomed us whatever we wore—they were such a warm-hearted group).

We arrived during the end of their Sunday School. There was a short break, and then singing and prayers. Some of the songs were in a hymnal, some were sung line by line by the choir with each line repeated by the congregation. After each song the people voiced short prayers/expressions of worship, while the piano played.There were two collections, plus a call for ‘tithes’ when people walked to the front and put envelopes into a box. There was a Bible reading and sermon by the pastor. The sermon ended with an ‘altar call’ and they put a seat at the front, but no one sat in it, so they moved on. There was then communion, but we slipped out. We weren’t sure how long the service would last (I think a couple of hours) and we were mid-drive, so when people went to the front for communion it seemed an okay time to leave. I hope it wasn’t rude, because they were a lovely group of people and I would hate to offend them. (But communion is always complicated in unfamiliar churches, because they have different rules about who can take it, and a family had just arrived so we felt the congregation was fluid in when people arrived and left.)

I have really enjoyed attending different churches during our road trip. They all have a slightly different style, the way that people choose to worship is very personal. As people passing through, we have felt accepted by the three churches we attended, but the Toddtown church was by far the most welcoming. It blessed my soul to be there.

We continued our drive through Alabama, and stayed overnight at a motel in Enterprise. Another good day.