Since we were here 19 months ago, the church has moved to another location. During this past year, one of the projects we have been working on is building the church. It is not finished, but it has the tin roof and walls of canvas that will house the people until the finishing begins. The finish work will not be started until the rainy season ends, which will be around the end of April, 2011. The floors of the church are made of the packed clay.
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| Covenant Bible Church of Mwanza |
As we come around the dirt road toward the church, you can hear the voices of the people singing! How beautiful it is to hear this in the distance. People are walking along the road toward the church. Many of the people hear the music and walk toward the sound to find out what is going on. As we drive by they see the white man & woman inside the vehicle, and they run behind to follow and see where they are going. When we arrived at the church, we got out one by one, six of us now because along the way we had a "tuck & roll" with a young man that had picked up a ride. We walked across a ditch that had 3 planks. As you walk across, the planks feel like they are going to break or maybe it just seems that way to me. I walked slow and with tiny steps just in case. This may be an indication that I have a few more pounds to loose.
When we walked in the church, the Praise team was singing the most beautiful song. They have instruments and a huge sound system that is run by a generator. Children are reaching for our hands as we walk down the isle. They love to touch our skin. As we walked in the church you could feel the presence of the Lord. He was there, no doubt. The worship service is so incredible. As you look over the crowd of people, you see hands raised, tears flowing, tears of love for their Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no shame as they worship and express their feelings of joy!
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| Praise Team |
Another thing we have learned is that you must always be prepared. It's amazing even to me how Eddie does this! Eddie, of course, is prepared because he knew that he was going to preach. But me, on the other hand, I am not prepared. The first thing Moses does is asked Eddie to introduce me so I could greet the people. Eddie has his introduction down now - he introduces his beautiful wife, Janice. Ahhhh, he's so sweet. It's such a blessing to me and an honor to stand before these people. They are looking at me with big beautiful smiles, and as if they are grasping every word that I say with such enthusiasm. This is fun, I could get used it....
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| Goodluck interprets for Janice |
Eddie begins the service by calling all the little children to the front of the church. This was so special for these children. They ran up to gather around him, mother's carrying the babies. He called them up to urge the parents to be the examples to these children, to teach them and train them. The only Jesus that their children will see will be thru them, as living examples. The children were clinging and holding onto Eddie listening to his every word.
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| Eddie & the little children |
Now for what they have been waiting for! No one is worried about the time, the fact that is now 1:30 pm, means nothing. No watches are being tapped as a reminder of the time, no one is leaving the building. Everyone sits with great anticipation of hearing this Man of God feed them the Word of God! I love this. I'm hungry for real food no doubt, but being here is more important right now than my empty stomach. Eddie begins with the loud "Bwana Asifiwe!" The shouts and clapping of hands could be heard for miles. Just writing about this brings tears to my eyes in remembrance of this special, special day. He begins his message of "The Truth of GRACE!" He told of the Old Testament Hebrew definition as being "God's kindness undeserved" Whereas the New Testament Greek definition of Grace as being "the divine influence upon the heart and it's reflection in the life of the believer". Thus Grace in the New Testament is God being the divine influence upon each believers heart because He dwells within us. Therefore we should reflect this influence throughout our life. Knowing this, it is proof that Christ dwells within each believer. Grace is the Person of Christ, and Grace changes us through His influence. Grace enables us. It is the power of God working thru us.
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| Eddie preaching |
There may be thousands of miles that separate our youth from these, but the distance doesn't change the fact that they have the same challenges, same struggles in their lives. Having 5 teenagers & young youth ourselves, we didn't find this to be such a problem to find something to share. We started with the illustration of the "ladder". You, as a child of God are standing at the top of the ladder. Your friend, living in the world, is standing at the bottom of the ladder. Which is easier, the pull someone up to the top of the ladder from the bottom or for someone to reach up and pull you down to their level? Of course it's easier to pull someone down. That's why we should be grounded in our relationship with God. They loved this! Seeing an illustration visually will have more impact than just hearing. Eddie then talked to them about staying focused on their relationship with God, and never compromising this relationship.
By the time the day at church was over, it is 4:30 pm. I reflect on our Sunday's at home. We go to church at 10:30 am and expect that we better be walking out the back door no later than 12:00 noon. How sad! This is a typical Sunday for them. They love worshipping and praising the Lord. Time does not matter to them. By now, I had forgotten that my stomach had been trying to get my attention. We were enjoying this time of fellowship with the people. We watched as all the people started walking back to their homes. No vehicles waiting to take them home, no bicycles.
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| Janice & little girl |
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| Martha, Moses' wife |
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Julia, Goodluck's wife |
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| Woman walking home |
1 comment:
Sounds like you had a wonderful day of worship. I've never been to church like that - how sad
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