Songs of Sunday morning

June 22, 2008

Imagine this picture from yesterday’s church experience:
The morning started out as a usually one for these days of missions. I woke up and went into the main house to find about 15 drivers (for the Mzungu team) and about 7 of the Bible college students having tea and bread in the sitting room. A little overwhelmed I quickly went to iron my dress (since my clothes dry on the line, therefore getting wrinkly, EVERYTHING must be ironed in order to look “smart”). After getting ready, we headed to the van, only to be greeted by about 25 little kids from a neighborhood behind us called Namatala, hoping for their lucky day to ride in a motorcar. One thing that continues to bless my heart every Sunday are the kids of Namatala. Usually there are about 7, and sometimes we give them a lift to church, but I guess those 7 told all the kids on their street. We told them to walk to church because already we could see a bad habit was forming.
Namatala is a neighborhood that is a poorer area of town, having many exiled Karamojo families that truly depend upon the Lord for their daily bread. I have gotten to visit this area a few times. What amazes me is that although the parents do not come, there is a huge group of kids that somehow know it is Sunday morning and discipline themselves to get dressed (probably in the only outfit that they have) and walk to church. There is a group of sweet little girls, who received cute little dresses made form pillowcases from the team from Wimberley. They come, so proud, to church wearing their new dresses and find Haley and I to come sit by us (Haley was on the team that gave the dresses out and is helping to start something to provide school fees for these kids in Namatala). All in all to say, I praise the Lord that these kids are hearing the gospel and experiencing the love of Christ at an early age, whether their motivation is a joy for coming to church, a ride in a motorcar, or a free meal for lunch.

So now we have arrived at church. Imagine this with me:
Kids under the mango tree reciting memory verses and singing. Adults in the main church eagerly in the Word and answering the questions of the Sunday school teacher. The morning is still a bit cool but as the sun heats up, it is time for all Sunday school classes and all ages to join back together.
Mbale PCU is a good church. The hub of all 50+ church plants and filled with many devoted, faithful, and passionate followers of Christ. The members here are great servants, always ready to testify or sing, ready to set up or tear down equipment, eager to give up their holiday to do the behind-the-scenes work for the crusades to fully work successfully.
As the Sunday school classes end, most of the adults have already staggered in and the kids are ousted taking porage (a drink made from corn meal and milk- similar to “malt-o-meal”). Despite the extra benches that have been added, there is still not enough space for everyone to fit. Kids are sitting 2 little bottoms in the space of 1. Adults are like sardines in a can, the heat is rising in the tin roofed building and I praise the Lord for the breeze and 3 ceiling fans. But, the Spirit of the Lord is heavy on this place. You can feel the joy in the passion of the songs and prayers. I love the singing. It takes half the song for the keyboard player to get the right tempo, but the songs continue on. And there is always dancing, which is my favorite. Often a woman, usually a jaja (grandma), will stand up, aver her arms around and gives out a traditional African cry for joy- “Aye, yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh—a”. Sweet worship to the Lord.
I pray the Lord would expand the walls of this church, literally and metaphorically. I have seen an increase in the number of attendants and I know the plans are in work and the sketches have been made for a new church building, but as in every church that wants to expand, the funds are lacking. But God is an awesome provider and I know He will meet the needs of this church, in Mbale, as it is the mother-church of all the others.
I will admit that at the beginning of today’s service my mind was a bit distracted. We were singing a song that says, “Father, we are here. Spirit, we are here. Jesus, we are here. We are here, waiting for you.” I stopped in the middle of singing and just admitted to the Lord that I was physically there but my mind was very far off. Praise God that He quickly drew me into himself and released my mind of the different things I was pondering. It turned out to be such a refreshing Sunday. Wow. The worship was awesome. Usually, since I don’t always understand the language that the songs are in, my time of singing is very different from that of America. God has truly blessed it by giving me my own words, to the beat of the songs, which praise and worship the King. It is truly a sweet time for me, but there is something so refreshing about a corporate, spirit-filled praise and worship time. I rejoice in today! We even sang my favorite song from here that goes like this (with much dancing and shouting and joy and victory) - “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and the devil knows I am a winner. I am a winner. And the devil knows I am a winner.” For I truly am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus!!