Singing Sunday

Day 27

Today was probably one of the most memorable days here in Africa. This morning for worship we visited the Kasibi Church of Christ. Kasibi is a small village about a 30 min drive away from Namwinaga. The road was extremely rough. Our land cruiser bounced up and down over the bumps as we headed to church. I sat next to Webster on the way to church this morning. We had fun as we tried to survive the big bumps being in the back of the cruiser. He also shared with me a lot of cool things about the small villages we passed on the way.

Once we arrived at the Church many people took pictures and then we started service. The church there has a building, but there were too many people to fit inside the building so we sat outside under a pavilion made of branches and straw. We sat on benches made of brick buy the locals there. When visitors come they often want the visitors to participate in the service, so Mr. Ragsdale, and Dr. Hopper spoke this morning, and Dr. Tullos had communion comments. The entire service was translated back and forth between Tonga and English. At the end of the service they had a ladies small singing group perform and then a small mens group; both groups where very entertaining.

After those groups were finished singing they ask the Harding students to sing for them, so we sang “We love you with the love of the Lord” and then two other songs in Tonga which Webster, our night watchmen led us in. I believe our singing went well, we received many good comments about it. People seem to appreciate my bass because I was the only male singer in the group besides Ian (who does not sing bass).

After singing the service came to a closed, we all lined up and shook hands with everyone who was present at the church service, then we headed to the village where there was a meal prepared for us and entertainment. Leonard, who is our cook here at the mission, is an elder and the church, so he  prepared us a meal afterwards consisting of shema, rice, chicken, rolls, cabbage, and cake. I was asked to help serve the food along with Megan and Ashley who work in the havens daily. My job was to open the glass coke bottles. I was happy to help and I enjoyed the company of Ashley and Megan.

Once the food was served we headed out with our plates to some benches where we could watch and listen to the locals play and sing music. They had made a guitar, and a bass, and then there was a banjo, and two drums. The food and music was great and afterwards people danced in a circle around the music group. Eventually Dr. Weaver and Tessa pulled me into the circle to dance with everyone before we left.

On the way back I had the privilege to sit with Justin and Webster in the back of the land cruiser. The entire time we were laughing as we bounced around in the back of the vehicle. Mr. Ragsdale, who was driving, accidently clipped and tree and did some fishtailing in the sand. It was a crazy ride back to the house, but a great adventure overall.

Once we were back I changed clothes and then headed to the Havens to play with the kids there in Haven 3. I have become very attached to Haven 3 and I love being with Sydney. I was able to get a lot of great pictures of the kids today. We got to take the kids that were old enough outside to play. It was fun to watch them run around and enjoy something different. Bennet was extremely entertaining this afternoon. He was imitating all sorts of sounds which were very amusing. Tessa and I would start laughing and then he would start to imitate the way we laughed which made us laugh even harder. He is a very smart boy, and he can also say my name, which is a plus.

When we came back from the Havens dinner had not yet been cooked so we waited, tonight we had pancakes and bacon. It was very good. Once dinner was finished we went to church and worshiped and then afterwards we had two baptisms. It was great to be a part of something like that again. The power was out, but the moon was so bright that you could still see anyways. God is good. When the power came back on the film guys, Tyler and Mark interviewed me for the video their making. They asked a lot of good questions. Many of them I will probably continue to process as my time here ends, and when I get back to the States.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. Our Pharmacy group traveled to Livingstone and back safely. Tomorrow the head back to Lusaka and fly out. Please keep them in your prayers. Today Dr. Hopper and Scott Ragsdale and their wives left for Livingstone and will soon fly back to the States as well. Please pray for their safety as well.

Thank you

Ben