In my head I’m remembering the Cat Stevens song “Morning Has Broken”. This morning dawned clear and sunny with a gentle warm breeze. Normally the city awakens early with hustle and bustle. The majority of Kenyans work 6 days a week…but Sunday is different, calmer…more restful. Perhaps as Sunday should be.
The Kosovo community is another small neighborhood in Mathare Valley. This morning we attended worship with the Kosovo church. We arrived about 10am and before the service was over it was 1pm. When we arrived one of the Kenyan pastors was preaching in English. Then we had about an hour of music and singing and dancing. Part of the singing was is Swahili and part in English. Their worship certainly reflects an attitude of celebration. Then our own pastor Tom was invited to speak which was translated into Swahili and a 15 minute sermon became 30+ minutes because each sentence or phrase has to be repeated by the translator.
After Tom’s message we had more singing. There was also a visiting student group from the Mathare nursing school. They had just begun a new term and they were asked to introduce themselves and present some special music. Finally we finished with more congregational singing. There were probably 150 people in attendance and they spilled into the dirt road running in front of the church where everyone greeted one another. No one hurried away and each was eager to greet us.
I know some of you may not understand but I always look forward to church in Kenya. There is a sense that there is nothing more important at the moment and time is not such an important issue. The service may last two hours or three hours or more…hakuna matata…no worries!
Lunch was at Java House…some of you receiving this have been to Java House. For those who haven’t been to Kenya, Java House is the Kenyan equivalent of Starbucks except with a full menu. There are usually many American and Europeans. After spending the past several days in the impoverished communities it feels good to step back into our western culture and enjoy a burger and a latte. We refueled for our next activity which was the open public market at YaYa center. The public market is not an experience for the timid.
Hundreds of local vendors set up their stalls in a parking lot. It is not uncommon to be surrounded by several vendors all trying to entice you into buying their wares at the same time. I’m always referred to as “Mama” in the market…”Mama, I have just what you need today…Mama, please come look at what I have…Mama, you are such a fine lady…let me just show you this…” Nothing can be purchased without a lot of dickering. It can be a bit exhausting and time consuming. I rather enjoy it and Ray would prefer to avoid it altogether…not surprising for those who know us. Dinner was at the Ethiopian restaurant with some Missions of Hope Staff.
Back at the guest house we prepared for Monday and vacation Bible school. Just FYI… although the bags have been released they still haven’t been brought to us. We’ve been promised they will be at the school tomorrow when we arrive for VBS. We are all looking forward to the next three days and the opportunity to work with our kids. It was with expectant hearts that we headed for bed.
Blessings,
Elizabeth
No comments:
Post a Comment