Igreja

Church in Mozambique is quite a different experience. First make sure you don’t forget your water or your handheld fan… then when you get there make sure you sit on the correct side (women and men). Next sit down on, what in most cases for me has been, a cut down palm tree.  Then wait for Sunday school to start, try to understand what is being said in Portuguese,   try to figure out when you are supposed to stand and sit, try to keep flies off of you, try not to pass out from the heat,  and make sure you drink lots of water! But while being exhausted from all this,  you find the most beautiful singing,  a wonderful message, the whole congregation memorizing bible verses as a body,  children memorizing a verse and reciting it for the congregation and above all else, a lot of Love and passion for Christ…….

How many of you have ever attended a church service, not feeling so well or being upset and having the whole church stop the service and immediately pray for you?

I would say never until I got to Africa. I had it happen to me once in West Africa, when I was homesick, a young lady got up during the service and dedicated a song to me and a prayer. Then in Mozambique I was feeling sick during the service and had to leave and when my friend came out to take me home she informed me that they stopped to pray for me and that’s why it took her a little longer to get outside.

Wow.  For me? Why? But then I realized it had nothing really to do with me but with God’s love shown through the church and the body being one, when one part of the body is hurting or sick  it effects the others. Right? I think so. I am amazed here at the amount of Godly servants who truly do everything they can to serve the Lord and others.  It is incredible to feel that kind of Godly love from a church that you have only been to once! Their concern and love for people overflows through the doors! How many of us including myself would ever think to get up and dedicate a song or pray for someone without it being in the bulletin? When someone is hurting in the congregation shouldn’t the rest of the body feel it?  I have learned so much already from Africans. Yes its hot, its hard, and very frustrating but when I stop looking at the hard things the good things just jump out at me!