Worship in community is one of my absolute most favourite parts of being in Malawi. Pastor Kelvin of Kawale wants punctuality so when he was late this morning we teased him. Then he shared he had been called in the middle of the night because the neighboring pastor had lost his 13 year old daughter to malaria. He had been with the family and was returning to be at the funeral in the afternoon. This is Africa.
When we arrived at the Mechesi African Abraham Church and i saw all the school desks and benches, my thought was: " How will we dance?" Well, I needn't have worried because once they got going, oh my, did we worship in dance and song !! Pastor Kelvin informed us that they had extended an invitation to several choirs from different churches in their denomination. Not only that, but the bishops from these churches were all present and when introduced they responded with " Hallelujah!" and perhaps a song. The choirs ( who arrived at different times of the service) had various opportunities to sing - many of their songs included stories of caring for widows and orphans, about AIDS, or any other pertinent topic. They were heartwarming!
We were asked if anyone wanted to preach so Judith gave a short testimony. The people embraced her so much that she then was pulled to the front for a dance with the next choir performance! Awesome!
When at 11:50 the pastor said: " That is the end of our introduction", I realized we were in for a true African service. Sure enough , we were done a few minutes before 2, but only because I informed pastor Kelvin we had to leave because the hotel had asked us to switch rooms.
The pastors repeatedly reminded us that we all serve the same God - whether in Africa or Canada.... Pastor Kelvin said: "there's no visitors in heaven". Love that. We are all in this journey. We have lots to learn from them - they have no inhibitions when it comes to worship - raw passion... So heartwarming.
We were also informed that our suitcases were at the airport, so we promptly went to pick them up. On the way we had a most unique opportunity to purchase mouse on a stick for our supper!! (Kidding- we paid to take a picture, tho).
Thanks again for journeying with us. Your prayers are continually carrying us and being answered by our almighty Father in heaven who loves the widows and orphans whom we are serving.
Good night,
Lydia
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