Yay African Church!

Today I went to church with my friend Ngomba. She asked me last week, but by the time last night rolled around I wanted to call her and say forget it. But how do you just say, 'no, I don't want to go to your church,' after you already said yes? So I went.

GOD knew I needed to go.

We got there, and everyone was so welcoming. It's a small church, and I'm white, so everyone knew I was a visitor, and they all went out of their way to make me feel at home. The service started with a guy speaking who was full of Hallelujahs and Amens. It was like a mini-sermon on Job 1, talking about how the devil tries to break us down, but we should still bless the LORD. Next came a few testimonies of things GOD has done in the last week.

Then the singing started, which is so different from a white church. Black people, especially Africans, have the joy of the LORD in them in a way white people don't. Or at least they show it more clearly and freely. (My only complaint about the church, though, is that it was way too loud. I seriously could feel how my chest and head were throbbing and was thinking that it could so lead to a seizure. Now it's 3 hours later and my ears still ache. But one of the men on the worship team said that when [not if - when] I come back, they'll tone it down for me.) There was dancing and clapping; enough to even get this white girl (who's Swedish to boot) moving.

Then came the offering, which included another mini-sermon (I don't remember the verses, though).

Then came the actual sermon, which was on Isaiah 40:27-31 - the verses about those that wait upon the LORD mounting up on wings like eagles. It was just what I needed to hear (I'll do a sperate post so this one doesn't look so long). The pastor preached in English, but then a guy translated it into French. This was actually kind of nice, though, cuz it gave me a second to take in what I just heard. It was a good sermon - I would like to hear it again to see what else there was to get out of it.

Then there were announcements and prayer. The whole service was loaded with prayer and Scripture. When it was over (almost 3 hours later - but it almost seemed shorter than a white service), several people introduced themselves and told me that I should get their numbers from Ngomba and if I ever needed prayer to call them and they would pray for me. And they were all so sincere. Throughout the whole service, everything was so sincere.

I would like to go again. Actually they all kept saying, 'when you come back...' and 'next time...' - there were no 'ifs' involved. :) The only thing is, if I do, I'll have to consider bringing some sort of ear plugs, that hopefully wouldn't be too obvious. That won't hold off the seizures, though. I'll have to think of something. But I do want to go back. So I'll leave that for GOD to figure out.