4/29/07 - morning into afternoon
As you may remember, last Sunday we went to church at one of the biggest Baptist churches in Nairobi -- it was an experience not unlike home, just enough different (praise songs in Swahili!) to make it cool...Well, church in Masii was another story entirely, but much more interesting.
We arrived about 10 am, not everyone was there yet, but we were met as we got off the bus by a little old lady (see above) who greeted us with "Huacha!" (as she was older than all of us!) and when she realized that we knew what the proper response was -- "Aaa!" - she started to laugh and went around the whole group, laughing, shaking our hands and greeting each one of us. It was great.
We had intended to sit in the back, but of course, they cleared out the kids who were sitting in the middle and gave us good seats. The whole first hour or so was taken up with prayers, singing, announcements, several choirs performed (different age groups), as people gradually filled up the room. We were introduced, other visitors brought greetings from other churches. There were several things that I enjoyed about the service.
Many things that were done that were straight out of the Bible. Of course, the singing and praying, but when the offering was taken, people brought their offering FORWARD, just as the children had done at the Tumaini VBS. Some of the church members did not have any money, and had contributed in kind -- fruit, eggs, beans, corn, dish soap and a couple of chickens. Much to our surprise, after the offering was taken, one of the elders of the church held an auction for the remaining items, including the chickens (see above). People (including us) bid on the items and either took them home, or donated them to the older members of the congregation.
They also took care of the widows and the orphans. I recognized several of the Tumaini children in the congregation and two or three of them were called forward to receive a bag with clothes and food. They also did this for the widows in the congregation. One of Tumaini's main scripture verses is James 1:27 "Religion which is considered pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world" -- I could see how it comes straight from their daily practice.
They also had what could only be described as a "drill team" for the young boys -- they marched in a formation, did several fancy maneuvers under the command of their leader, stood at attention while the second in command inspected all the boys, straightened collars and then presented them to the leader. After that, they marched out, all in very strict formation with the drummer and the keyboard player keeping the time. I thought to myself -- what a great way to channel the energies of these kids -- this showed a tremendous amount of self-discipline and apparently they practice all the time...
After the auction and other events, announcements and so forth, they turned off the generator, and Kerry preached with Stanley interpreting in Kikomba. It was quite an event and the best demonstration of "tag team" preaching that I have ever seen!
They wanted us to stay for lunch, but we had already been promised to have lunch with the Tumaini Board members back at the hotel, so we left fairly quickly after the service.
Lunch was very nice, we packed up and got ready to leave while they were having their meeting. I took pictures of Ellen and her husband Abraham and Agnes. Lovely people. Hard to leave.
The trip back to Nairobi was long -- there had been lots of rain during the week and the road near Nairobi was a mess. We had to get ready to leave early for the safari -- we quickly repacked and crashed back at HEART.
As you may remember, last Sunday we went to church at one of the biggest Baptist churches in Nairobi -- it was an experience not unlike home, just enough different (praise songs in Swahili!) to make it cool...Well, church in Masii was another story entirely, but much more interesting.
We arrived about 10 am, not everyone was there yet, but we were met as we got off the bus by a little old lady (see above) who greeted us with "Huacha!" (as she was older than all of us!) and when she realized that we knew what the proper response was -- "Aaa!" - she started to laugh and went around the whole group, laughing, shaking our hands and greeting each one of us. It was great.
We had intended to sit in the back, but of course, they cleared out the kids who were sitting in the middle and gave us good seats. The whole first hour or so was taken up with prayers, singing, announcements, several choirs performed (different age groups), as people gradually filled up the room. We were introduced, other visitors brought greetings from other churches. There were several things that I enjoyed about the service.
Many things that were done that were straight out of the Bible. Of course, the singing and praying, but when the offering was taken, people brought their offering FORWARD, just as the children had done at the Tumaini VBS. Some of the church members did not have any money, and had contributed in kind -- fruit, eggs, beans, corn, dish soap and a couple of chickens. Much to our surprise, after the offering was taken, one of the elders of the church held an auction for the remaining items, including the chickens (see above). People (including us) bid on the items and either took them home, or donated them to the older members of the congregation.
They also took care of the widows and the orphans. I recognized several of the Tumaini children in the congregation and two or three of them were called forward to receive a bag with clothes and food. They also did this for the widows in the congregation. One of Tumaini's main scripture verses is James 1:27 "Religion which is considered pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world" -- I could see how it comes straight from their daily practice.
They also had what could only be described as a "drill team" for the young boys -- they marched in a formation, did several fancy maneuvers under the command of their leader, stood at attention while the second in command inspected all the boys, straightened collars and then presented them to the leader. After that, they marched out, all in very strict formation with the drummer and the keyboard player keeping the time. I thought to myself -- what a great way to channel the energies of these kids -- this showed a tremendous amount of self-discipline and apparently they practice all the time...
After the auction and other events, announcements and so forth, they turned off the generator, and Kerry preached with Stanley interpreting in Kikomba. It was quite an event and the best demonstration of "tag team" preaching that I have ever seen!
They wanted us to stay for lunch, but we had already been promised to have lunch with the Tumaini Board members back at the hotel, so we left fairly quickly after the service.
Lunch was very nice, we packed up and got ready to leave while they were having their meeting. I took pictures of Ellen and her husband Abraham and Agnes. Lovely people. Hard to leave.
The trip back to Nairobi was long -- there had been lots of rain during the week and the road near Nairobi was a mess. We had to get ready to leave early for the safari -- we quickly repacked and crashed back at HEART.
No comments:
Post a Comment