visit to a student's church (3)

This past Sunday we visited another village congregation, this one pastored by Amos, a graduate of Covenant College.  Although it wasn't a current student's church, I've decided to include it, because this man was indeed one of the first students at the College when it began, so I think it should count.  :) 

This Baptist church is one of the largest congregations in the area, and we've visited it on numerous occasions.  It's good to keep up our relationship with the nearby villages and also with our graduates.  This weekend Marjanne had a group of Dutch young folks visiting her, and decided to take them to this church to give them a real 'village church' experience.  Our family decided to join them because we hadn't gone to this church in several months.  Marjanne's group walked -- it's about a 40 minute walk away.  We decided to drive due to the children's limited patience and my problems with sciatica.  The service started around 10:30 and lasted until 12:30... a very typical African service. 

Unlike the other churches we've visited in previous weeks, this one actually has a proper building, made of bricks, with a proper metal sheet roof.  The bricks are designed so that there are little 'windows' in the brick wall down the length of the church, so that a welcome bit of breeze can come in. here is also a proper cement floor!  The congregation sits in the typical Zambian format - divided into a men's side and a women's side, but then there is extra benches on the left side for the mixed (men and women) choir, and extra benches at the front on the right, next to the pulpit, for the women's choir.  Because there are only a few benches, a lot of the women and children sit on grass mats on the floor along the right-hand wall.  David sat on the men's side with Elijah, and I sat on the women's side with Ketzia.  We traded children a few times during the service, but by and large Elijah did very well and was very happy getting to sit with his daddy for a change!  Ketzia wasn't feeling well (teething) and actually fell asleep part-way through the service, lying on a chitenge on the floor. Shocking.  She's never done that before!

The service started with singing from the 'mixed' choir of men and women.  This church actually has well-trained choirs which sing very, very well.  The ability of Africans to harmonize is showcased nicely here!  The first song was sung sitting down, and then the next song was their 'marching up' song.  Choirs here do not just sing.... they usually have a song for 'marching up', then they stand in front of the congregation and continue their repertoire while they stamp, sway, clap, and otherwise 'dance' according to the type of song they are singing, and then they have a 'marching back' song when they return to their seats. Some of the marching is highly stylized to show off the capability of the choir.

The choir sang for quite a long time.  (If you are interested in what they sang... well, all the songs are in the local language so I don't catch very much, but I do know the translation of one VERY POPULAR chorus which just about every single church in the province loves to sing, which says something like, 'when you call God on the phone, he will answer...'  All the songs are very repetitious which is partly because of the oral culture.)

After the choir sat back down, there were some announcements and a welcome to the visitors. Then one of the women from the women's choir stood up and led a time of congregational praise and worship - more choruses.  I think you get the idea that the African churches love to sing.  :) 

After that it was time for the women's choir to perform.  Again the 'marching up' to the front, then singing for a while, then marching back to their seats.  Lots and lots of singing.

Then they took up the offering.  In this particular church they have bowls at the front by the pulpit and the congregation gets up from their seats to put the money in.  Afterwards they asked two people - a man and a woman - from the congregation to pray.  Then they sang a song to welcome to the preacher to the pulpit.  When we arrived at the church at the beginning of the service Amos immediately asked David to preach, but David said no this time because we wanted to worship as a family for a change. The next time we visit David will be preaching. So Amos took the service himself. 

We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of Scripture which was read before the sermon.  You will find that Scripture reading is very short in most village churches, partially because the Chichewa Bible is difficult to read (even for those few who know how to read) and partially because there is such an emphasis put on singing in the service rather than the Word of God.  But this time they read two chapters -- Matt. 26 and John 16. 

Amos preached a sermon about Jesus preparing himself to go to the Cross, and we found his application quite helpful - he was urging his congregation to make sure that they are right with God so that they will be ready to die when their time comes.  It was the longest sermon we've ever heard Amos preach (he typically won't preach for more than 10 minutes, and this was closer to 20) and the one with the best application. So that was very encouraging.  But it does say something that in spite of that, the total length of the sermon was less than 1/3 of the time spent singing!

After the sermon there were some closing announcements, a last song, and a closing prayer.  Then the women's choir sang as we all filed out and shook hands in greeting.  It was a lengthy but pleasant service and nice to visit there again after some time.  On the way home, we had a truck PACKED full with children (relatives of Nelson) wanting a lift down the road.  There was no space left in the bed of the truck, so the College cook Nelson and one of our students, Kawaleka were sitting on the open tailgate hanging on.  :)  The front seat was occupied by Nelson's very elderly aunt who can practically not walk at all.  She was extremely grateful to be given a lift down the road.  It was later than usual by the time we got home - after 1pm - so a quick bite to eat for lunch and then we put the children (whom we had barely managed to keep awake on the short ride home) straight to bed for their afternoon naps!