Yes, this morning I went with two of our translators to their church, along with one of our anesthetists. My Grandma Magill used to tell me how long their services were--up to 7-8 hours--but I thought after my first service that that must be a Kenyan thing. NOT SO!!! Today's service was five hours long with lots of music, singing, dancing, two offering times (one for the church and one for the building fund), introduction of any visitors (us included), a message, communion, two testimonies, annointing and prayer for a newly baptized young woman, annointing and prayers for many people who were pledging to give certain amounts towards the building fund (prayer that they would be faithful to their vows!), and more singing and prayer! It was quite a day and I'm now exhausted! We arrived at the church at about 8:45-9:00am and the service started soon after, with a pause after about 20 min of singing, to ask people to be respectful of others' time by arriving at the service on time. (That was before about 2/3rds of the congregation were there! LOL!) And the service let out around 2:00pm. They were very welcoming and our host translator was very gracious in his hospitality. It was an adventure but a fun one! I sat there praising God for the joy He takes in the variety of praise and worship He gets from around the world. He created our diversity and states in Psalms and Proverbs that He delights in the prayers and praises of the righteous! It gave me just a little glimpse of what the praise will be like in heaven before God's throne!!! Though I couldn't follow the words of most of the songs, there was no mistaking the spirit of the people. The same Holy Spirit is in us all--carrying the praise from a variety of tongues and cultures to the ears of God! How wonderful heaven will be when we all praise in the same tongue and culture! What a day that will be!
We passed the futbol (soccer) stadium here in Cotonou on our way to and from the church this morning. There is a huge match today between Togo and Benin in the rounds leading up to the world cup finals! There were already big crowds waiting to buy tickets and get in this morning. Vendors were lining up in the parking lots, preparing to sell food, drinks, and wares to the people flooding the stadium today. We passed crowds of people walking to the stadium wearing their teams jerseys, prepared to cheer their country on! On our way home, we passed more crowds of jerseyed fans and tour bus loads heading for the stadium. We even passed a load of Mercy Ship people heading to the game. (One guy went early this morning to get their tickets.) There's already been good-natured ribbing among day volunteers of differing countries about the match today so I'm looking forward to hearing about the game! Carl assured me that there would be more matches over the next several weeks so hopefully I'll be able to get in on one of those!!! Can't wait!
On the way home from church, I noticed the variety of smells of this part of Africa. At times, all you smell is rotting garbage. When we got to the area of the motor taxis, it smelled like something dead had been stashed somewhere for a while! But that's only in certain, small areas. Mostly it's clean, fresh, average air. Out at Hevie, the air is clearer and fresher somehow--being in the bush, away from the city. While on the road, there are the strong fumes from gasoline and from deisel trucks belching black soot. Then, occasionally, we'd pass a resturant or food vendor and my stomach would protest not stopping! It smelled warm and delicious! The last few roads into port, you start by smelling sea air, then rotting garbage as you pass by a very poor section of houses, then the sea air again or the strong smell of fish, depending on which way the wind is blowing! As you get to the edge of the dock and mount the gangway to come up to the ship, you may smell the garbage and waste floating in the water ("murky" doesn't even begin to describe it! The surrounding fishermen and seamen use it as their toilet and garbage dump!), or fish, or the heavy sea air--again depending on which way the wind is blowing and where your are on the gangway. Then through the front doors to cooler, clean air. I haven't really thought too much about the smells but I guess they have their part in this adventure as well.
Speaking of smells, it's time for dinner so I better go before I miss it all!
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It was good to catch up again. Thanks so much for all the time and effort you put into keeping us updated!
ReplyDeleteHeather
Many church services I really enjoyed, full of excitement, dancing, and generosity. And I remember thinking the same thing, that the same Holy Spirit is helping us all to worship in totally different ways. But there was one church that had more of a spirit of televangelism. You could tell the pastor loved to be up front. His sermon was about himself. And he preached very heavily about giving, looking the mercy ship volunteers in the eyes the whole time. He pulled us aside after the service and expressly asked us for money and then told us it was God's will for us to contact our home churches and have them send money to his church as well.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I remember is that when he preached he would assert something, like, the devil is most active at 3am so we should set our alarm clocks for 3am and get up to pray. Then he would ask us to confirm it in front of the congregation by saying, "Isn't that right, April?" I was there with two other girls who were both incredibly grounded spiritually and able to instantly see the flaws in this guys thinking. So when he asked us, point blank, to agree with him we couldn't do it in good conscience. We tried to explain our position as non-offencively as possible, but I got the impression that no one else in the congregation had ever challenged this guy. Of course it got him all the more worked up. I was never so glad to get out of there:)
April
Ha,ha, April! That's great! And very African!
ReplyDeleteMy roommate and I were noting the other day how many seem to pull random illustrations from the bible and sometimes change them to fit their message. In Esther, the speaker said that the king was sitting at his gate outside when he saw Esther but the passage actually said that he was sitting on his throne in the throne room facing the door! He also emphasized the fact that Esther approached the king on the third day, pointing out that God created plants on the third day (bringing life out of the ground) and that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day and God brought salvation to Esther on the third day, since she wasn't killed when she approached the king! Not sure I followed all of the connections there... One of the denominations here also preaches various versions of the prosperity gospel and that, if you are hurting or aching, you can slap that area with your pointer finger and say, "FIRE!" and in the name of Jesus it will be healed! Yeah... not sure where that is in the bible either! I pray that God's truth is not lost in their teachings, leading people away from God instead of to Him when things don't work out like the preachers say they will. But yes, it does get interesting at times!!! :0) And not all churches are this way...I've been to some really good ones, as well. What can I say? Even going to church can be an adventure!
tobi, dear... i was reading a few of your recent blogs (yes, i'm way behind!!), but you're talking about face surgery and plastic surgery, etc.. why do they need these? or what is the story behind how they got the wounds?? i'm sure it's in your blog somewhere ;) i just thought i'd post the question here so other people may be able to hear the answer as well if they came into the story a bit late :)))
ReplyDeletesounds like it's totally your cup of tea though.. the whole experience, the work, the people, the challenges, etc.. you go, girl :)) i know God will give you the grace you need.. just rest in Him.. rest & trust :)
jenng.