An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

that I felt within the Black majority church I was studying. Although I learnt from previousresearch courses that researchers experience isolation during their research, I did notanticipate the extent of the isolation that I felt with the black majority Pentecostal church(COGIC). My expectations were that as a black researcher from a Pentecostal background,I would have an advantage that another person without a similar background would nothave.After doing fieldwork for about 18 months, in many situations I felt really isolated. I didnot really belong anywhere as a person because I had to be very professional and mature inmy approach to everything that I did. I had friends, but they were distanced, or rather I feltdistanced from them. I made many changes in my personal and professional life prior toand at the beginning of this research and some changes were imposed on me. Throughoutmy life, I often felt very isolated and alone in my quest for new knowledge andinformation. Organizing time to concentrate on the thesis was a constant time-managementjuggling act but my time-management skills improved tremendously.„Why am I doing this at my age?‟ I constantly asked myself.On a day to day level the encouragement and inspiration appeared nonexistent. Peoplehave such busy lives and sometimes I had to make the same request five or six timesbefore I achieved a response. This could be very frustrating and I really wanted to give up.My supervisors were very supportive but I found it really hard to get local support. Thefieldwork in the URC church went very well and the people were willing to volunteer to beinterviewed and those who had been interviewed would ask me how the project wasprogressing. The fieldwork in the Pentecostal church did not go so well; although the13