Worshiping in Kijota
On Sunday, October 7, we finally were able to worship with our companion congregation -- the Kijota church for which we pray each Sunday. What an amazing experience. This post will be full of photos, so be warned!
First, here's the church building itself.
We arrived quite early, so that we could meet with the staff, have a little breakfast, and organize our participation in the service. That allowed me time to take a few photos before the pews filled up. Here is the altar area.
One of the great parts about this service was Pastor Glenn preaching. This meant, among other things, we could understand the sermon! He even had a prop! (That's a very real rock, acquired more than a week prior in Ngorongoro.)
Pastor Shila served as his translator, and definitely enjoyed the experience, though we are quite certain he did not know how Glenn was going to make a sermon out of a rock. (We won't spoil it by telling you. Glenn may use the sermon for us someday!)
We had front-row seats to the whole service. It was fantastic.
In yet another Surprise Blessing, Glenn not only was able to preach, but he also baptized a baby at the service!
A couple things you should know about Tanzanian services in general, and this one in particular. The services are long (this one was about 3 hours and 40 minutes) and full of music. Seven choirs performed during this service, a couple of them performing twice. Here is a photo of a choir which traveled all the way from the cathedral in Singida to sing and dance for us, and one of their members was a very cute boy.
All the choirs included dance in their performances -- Karen really wants to do the same at Mount Olive sometime -- and they all sang and danced to recorded music and voices. Here is another choir.
We gave a few gifts to the congregation during the service. A Christmas banner we are no longer using. A quilt made by the Mount Olive quilters.
And the most special gift of all -- stoles from Ron Onnen. He had asked that his stoles be given to a church in Tanzania, so it made perfect sense to give them to our partner congregation. Pastor Mjungu was touched to accept them on behalf of Kijota church.
We also presented one final gift, to the students at Hull, who all attended the service. If you read the Hull School post, you may remember that a student asked if we would help with equipment for their physical education. So, after we returned to Singida that day, Faraja and Bashiri helped us find a place where we could buy "footballs" ("soccer balls" for us Americans.) We bought two, and gave them to one of the students who had asked us to help.
This was a big hit! He bounced them to the Hull section and all the students cheered.
After the service, the church leaders always have an auction. You see, when offerings are taken, some congregants can't give money, so they give goods. Corn; chickens; eggs -- whatever they have. In order to immediately turn those goods into money for the church, a leader auctions them to other congregants.
After this amazing experience, we had a bit of lunch and then had to say our farewells to our brothers and sisters in Kijota. Pastors Glenn and Mjungu really enjoyed getting to know and work with one another.
And the ladies, in particular, made wonderful friends with some of the women in the congregation. Here is a photo of Karen and Sherry with two women who were instrumental in the Sewing Day. Their names are Lightness (left) and Ellen (pronounced "ay-LEEN" if I got it right.)
The whole worship experience was incredible. It's almost unbelievable how enjoyable a long service can be, when it's filled with so much joy, faith, music and dance. I'm sure this is something we will never forget.
First, here's the church building itself.
We arrived quite early, so that we could meet with the staff, have a little breakfast, and organize our participation in the service. That allowed me time to take a few photos before the pews filled up. Here is the altar area.
One of the great parts about this service was Pastor Glenn preaching. This meant, among other things, we could understand the sermon! He even had a prop! (That's a very real rock, acquired more than a week prior in Ngorongoro.)
We had front-row seats to the whole service. It was fantastic.
In yet another Surprise Blessing, Glenn not only was able to preach, but he also baptized a baby at the service!
A couple things you should know about Tanzanian services in general, and this one in particular. The services are long (this one was about 3 hours and 40 minutes) and full of music. Seven choirs performed during this service, a couple of them performing twice. Here is a photo of a choir which traveled all the way from the cathedral in Singida to sing and dance for us, and one of their members was a very cute boy.
All the choirs included dance in their performances -- Karen really wants to do the same at Mount Olive sometime -- and they all sang and danced to recorded music and voices. Here is another choir.
We gave a few gifts to the congregation during the service. A Christmas banner we are no longer using. A quilt made by the Mount Olive quilters.
And the most special gift of all -- stoles from Ron Onnen. He had asked that his stoles be given to a church in Tanzania, so it made perfect sense to give them to our partner congregation. Pastor Mjungu was touched to accept them on behalf of Kijota church.
We also presented one final gift, to the students at Hull, who all attended the service. If you read the Hull School post, you may remember that a student asked if we would help with equipment for their physical education. So, after we returned to Singida that day, Faraja and Bashiri helped us find a place where we could buy "footballs" ("soccer balls" for us Americans.) We bought two, and gave them to one of the students who had asked us to help.
This was a big hit! He bounced them to the Hull section and all the students cheered.
After the service, the church leaders always have an auction. You see, when offerings are taken, some congregants can't give money, so they give goods. Corn; chickens; eggs -- whatever they have. In order to immediately turn those goods into money for the church, a leader auctions them to other congregants.
After this amazing experience, we had a bit of lunch and then had to say our farewells to our brothers and sisters in Kijota. Pastors Glenn and Mjungu really enjoyed getting to know and work with one another.
And the ladies, in particular, made wonderful friends with some of the women in the congregation. Here is a photo of Karen and Sherry with two women who were instrumental in the Sewing Day. Their names are Lightness (left) and Ellen (pronounced "ay-LEEN" if I got it right.)
The whole worship experience was incredible. It's almost unbelievable how enjoyable a long service can be, when it's filled with so much joy, faith, music and dance. I'm sure this is something we will never forget.
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