New Church Experiences!

Today is Sunday. Sunday is church day. So for church this morning, Sarah, Bethany and I went with the Kennell family to the village of Njei, where we found out they weren't having church this morning. So, we proceeded to trek on a footpath to the village of Ewede where we worshiped with the people there. It was, of course, all in Kabiye, so I spent time looking around and listening intently for words I could recognize. There was one little girl with whom I kept making eye contact, so I would smile and make faces at her- her reaction was always to smile with her mouth closed which would quickly turn into a full-tooth grin! It was pretty fantastic.


I have so many things I want to tell you about. Like yesterday's wall spider fun, and Brett's pet monkey, and the adorable Emerson boys using me as a jungle gym, and the super tiny goats we saw today, and the African food experience we had the other day, and the market experience we had yesterday with the pagnas and the nasty meat and feet sticking out into the walking path, and the baby who is afraid of white people... but I can't possibly do that. So, instead, I'm going to give you a glimpse into my Moleskine notes I took during church!

1. A smile is universal.
2. Church can be long or short, depending on rain.
3. I can tell when someone is generous and serving even when I can tell what is being said.
4. There is a lot of joy in African worship.
5. I know the Ameya song, and that's nice.
6. We should sit in the chairs first because if we don't, they'll ask us to.
7. Preachers passionately raise their voice in Africa, too.
8. I am only a part of the body- I have gifts. I need to serve as a servant, teach as a teacher, encourage as an encourager, give generously as a giver, govern diligently as a leader and show mercy cheerfully as a human. I need to work on this.
9. "Love must be sincere." Romans 12:9a.
10. Cell phones go off during African church, too.
11."Hold on to the good." 1 Thessalonians 5:21b.

One more thing I want to share before I end this post. Today at lunch, we were talking about music and how we woke up to loud, American worship music today coming from the Nigerian church next door to our apartment. Then Nicole said this:

"If you hear Celine Dion, you know its a bar."

I laughed for quite a while.


I love you all, and I hope you are all doing well. I would love to have some comments with questions to prompt me to write more interesting/more applicable things!