Scott Lewis

Black and White: Singles

"That's the best feeling in the world," Lorin Coakley said of dunking her daughter Stephanie,16. "Sixteen years of payback," she added jokingly. The dunking booth was part of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship's Beach Party at the end of a series of churchwide bible study lessons.
   
On a wall exposed to the beach, Pawel Banicki poses for pictures taken by a friend as Hurricane Isabel approached the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Banicki is from Poland, working on the island for the fall. 'This is great,' Banicki said. 'We don't get this in Poland.'
   
Paratroopers train at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
     
  
"You can believe in Jesus and still be loud," Chris Whent, drummer for The 7 Method, said. The band's music is rock with metal and hardcore influences but the lyrics, written primarily by lead singer Eric Marlowe, reflect the band's non-judgemental, Christian lifestyle. "Traditional church has been a place where you're told what you can and can't do," Marlowe said. "We're not here to judge anybody," Whent said. "We get judged by the traditional church people all the time. We try to tell kids all the time that's not what God's love is."
  
Martha Sumner, left, and Betty Lovett do push-ups on a wall at Grace Community Church during the Body & Soul class for seniors. Body & Soul is a nationally based outreach ministry that has chapters in churches across the country. The exercises are done to Christian themed music and the beginning and ending of each class involves prayer and allows people to keep up with other members and the news of the congregation.
   
Will Sun, 16, does a dance as a pineapple during the weekly Friday youth night of games and bible study at the Chinese Bible Church of North Carolina. 'One of the goals of the church in general is fellowship, to hang out with other believers,' Tim Palmer, the church's youth director, said. 'It encourages them morally.' There are services in both Mandarin Chinese and English for the congregation which consists of parents who are both Chinese and American and their children who are being raised here. 'Some people at school focus on partying (drinking, drugs and sex) and I don't think these guys party at all,' Daniel Chen, 16, said. 'There's no crude jokes (here). It's nice to get away from it.'
     
  
Brent Watson and Lucifer pace in front of St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church Shelter on Capital Blvd. in Raleigh, North Carolina. 'He's a little devil,' George Carpenter said of the inspiration for his dog's name. 'You've got a junkyard dog, he's a shelter dog,' Carpenter said with a laugh. 'A lot of the time people might drive by this place but they don't know nothing about it,' Carpenter, the shelter's assistant manager for eight years said. 'Its kind of a forgotten piece of the world.'
   
Albaraa Sarsour, Mohammad Sarsour, Mohammed Inaya, Yosr Baianonie, and Omar Awan tend to an infant's grave at the Islamic Center of Raleigh's Muslim Cemetery in Wendell, North Carolina. Youth volunteers maintain the twenty-two acre parcel of land in eastern Wake County. 'When you come you reflect and think about your own death,' Baianonie, 19, said. 'You would want somebody to do this for you.'
   
Maria Bernarda Leon and Mario Leon, left, dance during a surprise reception for their wedding at The Cathedral of Sacred Heart in downtown Raleigh. They were only planning on a small quiet ceremony when their friends surprised them with a reception afterwards. The Leon's were first married 26 years ago and stayed together for 17 years before divorcing for nine. They remained friends after the divorce as they raised two daughters. Their wedding fell apart due to Mario's infidelity but "he's calmed down now" Maria said with a smile. "I know religion is not going to save us," Maria said. "It's what he does and what I do and how we evangelize to people." The couple had a civil ceremony in March but wanted to have a wedding in the church as well. "The sacrament to me means a lot because I can participate in the eucharist," Maria said. "I can lie to the people, I can lie to the priest but I cannot lie to God," Maria said of the importance of an official church wedding.