As promised, I have to tell you all about church this morning at Leonard's. We had a most amazing experience. Before I go into that though, I wanted to let you know that Alfred passed away yesterday morning. He was unable to overcome the aspiration pneumonia. Please keep everyone in your prayers.
This morning, we loaded Khaki Jackie (our faithful Land Rover) and off we went on a 45 minute drive through the absolute bush of Africa. The roads were so sandy that we were hydroplaning as if on ice. B. Weave is master of driving in all conditions, and she is my absolute hero for this, amongst many other reasons. She was amazing and so calm.
Once we arrived to the very small but well loved church building, we heard singing as we were unloading the car. This is when their "choir" came out of the doors and walked towards us, singing a welcoming song and shaking each of our hands. We then entered for worship. And worship we did, for almost 2 hours. We sang, had communion, they had us sing for them, their singers sang for us, there was preaching, and so on.
After which Leonard got up and gave the SWEETEST speech about how he woke up at 4 a.m. this morning because he was so excited we were coming to his church (he is an elder there). Afterwards, we single filed out of the church to shake all of the children's hands. Then we each added on to the line and everyone behind us came through and shook our hands. So friendly, this church. The singers sang the whole time during this special "Meet and Greet."
We then were asked to walk about 10 minutes down the road to the village, where he had prepared our lunch of roasted chicken, rice, traditional sauce, slaw, bread, and a cake that was labeled, of course! I didn't get a picture but I do plan on posting one soon, no worries. And anytime we are invited somewhere, they ALWAYS serve us cokes in glass bottles. (And if you forget to turn your glass bottle in they will call you out. True story).
It was about this time that we heard the band starting outside. There were about 5 men who had make shift drums, tambourines, and a banjo. This is when all of the children lined up and began circling around the band in their cultural dance. These. kids. could. MOVE. I mean, I am pretty sure I took some footage that can be used in a "before they were stars" special one day. They circled round and round the band, slowly recruiting our team to join them. We danced for about an hour, I would say. It was so fun! Hopefully when I get back to Nashville, I can post some videos. Until then, enjoy these pictures. What an incredible day!
This morning, we loaded Khaki Jackie (our faithful Land Rover) and off we went on a 45 minute drive through the absolute bush of Africa. The roads were so sandy that we were hydroplaning as if on ice. B. Weave is master of driving in all conditions, and she is my absolute hero for this, amongst many other reasons. She was amazing and so calm.
Once we arrived to the very small but well loved church building, we heard singing as we were unloading the car. This is when their "choir" came out of the doors and walked towards us, singing a welcoming song and shaking each of our hands. We then entered for worship. And worship we did, for almost 2 hours. We sang, had communion, they had us sing for them, their singers sang for us, there was preaching, and so on.
After which Leonard got up and gave the SWEETEST speech about how he woke up at 4 a.m. this morning because he was so excited we were coming to his church (he is an elder there). Afterwards, we single filed out of the church to shake all of the children's hands. Then we each added on to the line and everyone behind us came through and shook our hands. So friendly, this church. The singers sang the whole time during this special "Meet and Greet."
We then were asked to walk about 10 minutes down the road to the village, where he had prepared our lunch of roasted chicken, rice, traditional sauce, slaw, bread, and a cake that was labeled, of course! I didn't get a picture but I do plan on posting one soon, no worries. And anytime we are invited somewhere, they ALWAYS serve us cokes in glass bottles. (And if you forget to turn your glass bottle in they will call you out. True story).
It was about this time that we heard the band starting outside. There were about 5 men who had make shift drums, tambourines, and a banjo. This is when all of the children lined up and began circling around the band in their cultural dance. These. kids. could. MOVE. I mean, I am pretty sure I took some footage that can be used in a "before they were stars" special one day. They circled round and round the band, slowly recruiting our team to join them. We danced for about an hour, I would say. It was so fun! Hopefully when I get back to Nashville, I can post some videos. Until then, enjoy these pictures. What an incredible day!
These two little girls were incredible.
The dance circle
Here I am with 3 of the 10 Kasibi Church of Christ Singers. They had shirts, matching chitenge, and matching head wraps.
Leonard taught us that you can be an elder of your church and still shake your groove thing.
Then he pulled me out of the crowd and proceeded to dance with his arms on my shoulders. I felt like we were doing the two step, and I liked it.
Oh Leonard, you party animal, you. Talk about a person who has joy in the Lord!
1 comment:
Oh Caroline,
Thank you, thank you for sharing how people in another part of God's world worship him. The joy of this story is....they have less materialistically and in many other ways then we in the U.S.. But how deeply they appreciate everything good or bad in their lives. And how joyfully they worship our creator. My cup runs over with gratefulness for the opportunity he has given all of you to see and experience heaven on earth. Praise God for he is good!
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