Last night I sat down and typed for about 45 minutes. As I was trying to post my entry I lost the whole thing! I was so disappointed.
So I shall do my best to recreate my thoughts from 10 pm last night.
The best part of last Sunday, for me, was the evening worship service. The morning service ran 4 hours, due mostly to having our team in town and having local politicians and neighboring pastors come in to greet us and say a few words. We eventually broke for lunch around 2. The team went to a nearby mall and grabbed lunch at the food court heeding the warnings about not eating fresh fruits or veggies that we couldn't peel and don't get ice in your drinks!
A bizarre cheese burger later we were back at the church for the "evening service". Our band played. A Nairobi band played. The lead singer of the Nairobi band was a wonderful young man who told the story of his childhood. He was born with a studder. He was teased for his speech by his brothers. He prayed to God that if God would heal his speech he would commit his life to praising the Lord. His speech was healed and now he travels with the church band. By the end of the service the 2 bands had merged, an extra fellow had emerged with a large rectangular tamborine-looking instrument and was shaking it for all he was worth along with blowing the whistle he had. The church was rockin! Conga lines went around the inside of the church. Dancing and singing! It was amazing. I told Pastor Daniel that we need to step it up at Crossroads like that!
At some point in the evening a little boy crawled up in my lap. He was about 2. He was dirty and smelled like a barnyard. We became fast friends. Even though he didn't talk he loved the music and he had some impressive moves while sitting on my lap. That boy had rythm! Sometimes we sat and danced in the chair, and sometimes I stood holding him and we boogied! Eventually he fell asleep in my arms, with the bands rockin the rafters. It was so loud. I was stunned that he slept through the noise. When the service ended I started looking around for a parent to hand him off to. Nobody approached. I asked some of the kids. Nobody knew him. I asked the pastor. He didn't know who this little boy was either. So I claimed him as mine! I wanted to bring a child back anyway! Eventually his "big" brother came up. His big brother was probably about 5 years old. It seems that the older brother heard the church music and brought the 2 year old to check it out. They had walked several blocks to the church. As big brother brought little brother's "shoes" and put them on him I woke him up. The big brother took the lil guy's hand and off they walked.
Monday we met back at the same church and split into teams to walk throughout the community and distribute food and offer to pray for the residents. The culmination was include an outdoor concert by our church band. Nairobi is right at the beginning of their rainy season. I guess a week ago it was very hot and dry here. The day we arrived it started to rain. We prayed the gray clouds would blow on by and leave us to our outdoor concert. The band was set up on a grandstand and ready to go. Minutes before the concert was due to start the skies opened up and it poured. The equipment was rushed inside and saved, but the concert was cancelled. It was to have been an outreach for the church to have all the concert music to draw the neighbors in. It was a little disappointing for many of us, but we managed. I helped a couple of members of our team teach a few children's songs to the church. That was a lot of fun, but boy was I sweating and tired when we were done. Have I mentioned that its been in the low 80's here? It rained a couple of times Sunday and Monday but have been clear and hot since. I've learned that "hot" is relative term. Many of the Kenyans I meet are wearing sweaters and parkas. They are cold. I guess when you are used to 120 degrees and it drops 40 degrees you get cold. It makes sense. When our temps drop from 80 to 40 we get cold!
This post has gotten long enough so I'm going to post it and start another one before I lose it all like last night.
No comments:
Post a Comment