Sunday Worship

Wow. James took Patty and me to Zion City Church, a Pentecostal Church, for worship this morning. The music was great, but the whole service lasted 15 minutes shy of 5 (yes, five) hours. Worship began at 9:00 a.m. and we walked out at 1:45 p.m. The first two hours were mostly music which was very good. It must have been Children's Sunday because they invited all the children to come forward and some of the congregation came forward to lay hands on them for prayer. James and I were invited to come forward for this. I actually liked this part and there were many, many children. But the introduction of the guest preacher from Dar es Salaam (The capital city) took about 1/2 hour. I lost tract for how long the preacher preached, but it was well over an hour. The whole service had a translator who would translate either from English into Swahili or Swahili into English. I was actually very impressed with the translator. The preacher would shift from English to Swahili and back off and on, and the translator didn't miss a beat. After the service was over, James apologized to us because the service went much, much longer than normal. His church generally goes about 2 hours and this was way too long for him. He said he didn't know what to do but felt we couldn't leave. Patty and I were the only two Anglos in the service and we were sitting toward the front center, so it would have been pretty obvious if we had left. We told him it was OK, it was a new experience for us. I actually felt relaxed during the whole service and chalked it up to another learning experience. However, I hope not to attend that long of a service again. :-)

We went for lunch at the hotel where we are staying and had a nice leisurely time. Afterward James agreed to walk us to the Masai Market about a mile down the road where Patty and I bought a few souvenirs.  After a cup of African tea, we went to our respective room to relax for the remainder of the evening.

Tomorrow A vehicle will pick us up at the hotel and 7:30 a.m. for a day of meetings. I'm really looking forward to it. On Tuesday I will lead chapel at 8:00 a.m. at the end of which we will head out to an ADP about an hour's drive northwest of Arusha where we will spend the rest our time here. We will head for the airport for a 7:40 p.m. flight to begin our journey home.

Kwaheri (good-bye, literally, sleep well)