w/ the Bishop!!! (that is also my new bag that I've mentioned)!Sunday Feb 3rd
Although my stomach was pretty queasy in the morning, we left a little after 8am! Luka, two Tanzanian women who are teachers at the kindergarten, myself, sofia, a Tanzanian pastor that appeared, and Pastor Hafermann of course! It only took about an
hour to get to the church as it was Primary road literally the whole way there except for about a 1/2 mile of secondary/tertiary road! We arrived at 9:10 and boy was the place already hopping! and I was surprised to see about 4 other cars already parked in a line!!
I knew this was a BIG DAY...and definitely a unique experience as 12 new pastors would be ordained...but also the church was re-dedicated I believe! But I still didn't know just how big until people kept coming and I could sense the importance and feel the anticipation rising. Sofia and I followed PH and Luka around shaking hands with people for about 10 minutes, then of course Luka and PH know so many people and so they go off chatting while Sofia and I find a bench near some Maasai women to sit on and we just watched...and waited. Today was not like a typical village visit so I really had no idea what to expect at all... still tough for someone who used to be (still am?) SUCH a planner... I think my experience abroad here is already helping me to be more laid-back!! Anyway, some more cars pull in and out comes Martin, the German pastor from the village of TwaTwaTwa that I met my first time out in January...and a bunch of Maasai men with him (with cameras of course...and Martin is about incorporating such technology to expose these tribal warriors to more of the "outside" world). Another truck shows up, with....a BAND??!! haha- it is true. About 8-10 men with a couple drums, trumpets, trombones and that's all I think. And a white woman who drove them. I watched her shaking hands with everyone as she seemed to know mostly everyone as well... then eventually she came over to say hello to us because she has met Sofia and comes to the seminary once in a while to do some work stuff with PH... anyway, I liked her (Barbara) immediately :)
And then the service began, at 10Am (on time, according to Barbara)! The rest of the day she was by my side as she translated everything!!! Barbara was a teacher in the U.S. (Seattle, WA) and then decided she wanted to go someplace warm and so through the ELCA she ended up here in Tanzania. She came on a contract for a couple years, but that was in 1999...and as she says, "you can see how that worked out!!" She is the offical HIV/AIDS Programme Officer for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania in the Morogoro Diocese but she tells me she has all sorts of jobs!! She does much with community development work, including HIV/AIDS programming, digging water wells, women's centers, etc. She lives in Morogoro by herself and invited me to dinner sometime. Gregarious is a wonderful word to describe her and actually all day long I was contemplating if she was related to Bill Yonker and finally decided that this was the FEMALE Bill Yonker... for those that don't know who this man is he is one of my most favorite people ever and is my favorite speaker! He is a pastor in Illinois and he leads Bible Study for the staff training at camp every summer and has spoken at camp many times...he is a dear friend and so meeting and sharing with/learning SO much from Barbara was an incredible blessing!!Like I said~ about 10am, the service starts...as a parade...so the people gather round the entrance of the cemented church with many benches inside) and the band comes...so the people follow the band in, and Luka, Sofia, myself and Barbara sit a couple rows from the back on the end of a bench...soon following the band, in came the soon-to-be ordained 12 pastors, and then PH and the 5 heads of the other districts/regions in the Morogoro Diocese, and of course the Bishop!!More people kept pouring in: Bantu people and tribal(Maasai) people mixed...there had to be at least 500 people packed into the church, and many more stood in the last 1/4 in the aisle. What a celebration! The church had tiny boquets of pink flowers everywhere and there was some electronics set up as there were abot 3 different choirs that came to sing...and get this, the most expressive group (they all wore yellow and were definitely the crowd favorite as they danced/moved around a LOT)...they were lip-synching for the most part because they pre-record!!! HA! I couldn't believe it... I would seriously have just rather heard the voices, as it takes time to get the equipment working right, and although it was nice to actually have a microphone up front for the Pastors and the Bishop to use, it went haywire a couple times causing everyone to cover their ears!!
The service started just like any other village service I've been to (the same liturgy)...we sang a couple of hymns, listened to/watched different choirs, scripture was read, and then it was time for the sermon... mind you, it was already about 11:30am (Remember: church started at 10AM!). However, the sermon was phenomenal and although Ive gotten used to not understanding anything, or hearing bits and pieces I was grateful to have Barbara translate the whole thing (about an hour long I think!) The Bishop is such a wonderful, charismatic person and I think the best thing about him was is bluntness. However, people are not offended because they respect him, and also I believe they truly know that things need to change/that they need to change- or be a part of the change... I wish I would have had a notebook to jot down everything he touched base on, but I'll do my best to remember. He first of all spoke in general about Jeremiah 3 (the main verse being 15: "Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding")... and talked about God calling Jeremiah when he was very young, and although Jeremiah thought he was only a child, he listened to God's call and embraced new confidence. **Just read Jeremiah 1: 4-10 (it is in much better words!)**
The Bishop related it to these 12 new pastors as they are all young- in their 20's- and told them that they need to FEED THEIR FLOCK. He reminded them what the church should be like and said, if someone is sick and cannot go to church one Sunday, GO visit them... pray for the sick, visit the orphans, rejoice at weddings, grieve at funerals...for thus is the job of Pastors- to shepherd their flock... The bishop put it context with the culture, so of course talked about herding cattle (instead of sheep) and said, if you feed your cattle you must herd your cattle, and if you herd your cattle you must feed them...it's a continuous cycle!
Then he touched on SO many areas and again, was amazed at his bluntness!! He told stories, and really, used his sermon as an educational tool :)
(NOTE: one of the choirs had a song about AIDS and how all it causes is more death, and more orphans. Barbara says once in a while a choir will sing a song about AIDS in church, so education abounds even in singing!)
He touched on issues of modesty, saying women, if you wear a shorter skirt and are sitting in the front row, how can the pastors concentrate on the liturgy if you are giving free views, and for the men: I’m not sure if he was addressing Maasai (as they obviously do not wear many clothes, mainly just “robes” pretty much) or townspeople but he mentioned low pants and said men, we don’t want to see you sagging so pull up your pants… he also brought up AIDS and said, we have to stop this from continuing…look at how many orphans there are... “we are in the age of science and technology” (he said this quite often actually… I highly doubt we, in the West, can say that these people are primitive and/or ignorant)…it’s important to be knowledgeable, to have some education, to especially send your children to school…to not have so many children as you cannot feed them all/educate them all properly…
Again, I wish I could remember more, as it was all so good…he ended by talking about how church doesn’t mean just coming to a place, or a building on Sundays… and reminded the pastors why especially for them to FEED THEIR FLOCK… it’s similar to the quote we hear in America sometimes about “Going to church no more makes one a Christian than sitting in a garage makes one a car…” or in Tanzanian cultural context, “ Going to church no more makes one a Christian than sitting in a field/hut makes one a cow!”
I think I appreciated his bluntness so much because this is something that would NEVER happen in America…or at least very unlikely. One could argue, yes, well this is more cultural, but is it really??? I mean, cultures may be different, but there are plenty of issues/areas that we could be blunt about… but then I was imagining if this Bishop went and used the same bluntness in an American cultural context… people would be extremely offended… why? Because no one wants to admit/verbalize/bring to light these issues or problems…and people are very prideful: “Who are you to tell me what I should/shouldn’t do, what’s right/wrong…etc?” I believe that we, in the West (a.k.a. the industrialized world- so not just America) are so distracted/blinded by this veil of American ideals, especially Individualism (which is different from Freedom), and this idea of “success” and money, and the “American Dream” which I believe is fading anyway. So why were these people laughing at his stories and not getting offended and walking out and leaving? Because deep down they know it’s true- they are not blinded by so much consumerism and industry… this is what the Bishop meant, I think, when he said that we cannot allow the ideas of the West to influence us, and said that it is basically bad. He wasn’t saying that the people are bad (although I’m still sitting there thinking, great, I’m one of three (not counting PH) white people out of at least 500)… that’s different than saying” this is an age of science and technology,” for obviously not all industry is bad…it’s the amount, the intentions, the consequences...
Gosh, one could go on forever but I’ll stop there… it was about 12:30-12:45pm and the first offering (of like 3-4) took place, which was not organized at all (then again…not much is structured when it comes to stuff like that) as the front rows filed out (first around the back) to walk to the front to put money in the basket, then go back to their seat… it was very stuffy in the place (even though sitting near the wall where there were designs in the cement so air could get through) so after we put some money in we walked outside, where there were maybe 40 people hangin outside the entrance to the church as the two main doors were wide open. We needed some fresh air and Barbara shared a bottle of water with Sofia and myself. She introduced us to a couple of people, but I just stood by her truck under a tree, taking in my surroundings. A few minutes later I look to my right and I see about 5 guys standing together and I have to do a double-take, but I am very glad I did as I recognized a couple of the Evangelists and they waved!! I was very happy to see a couple familiar faces!! Then, one came over to me and asked me in Swahili if I remembered him, I didn’t answer him right away and Barbara helped me, but I knew what he was saying :)
His name is Peter, and he is one of the Evangelists from the very first village I went to on Friday Jan 18th… but I had forgotten the name of the Village so didn’t know at first when he said the name: Kimambo… I think?! It’s always akward after the first 5 minutes since I can’t exactly further communicate! Lol I don’t know how to explain it without sounding cheesy, but I felt “special” that he made a point to come say hello( I mean, most people obviously remember me…because I’m the white girl of course! Haha), but it was still very nice of him to do so!!! Barbara and I went to the side of the church where we met a couple office workers for the Diocese and a young girl brought a large pan of boiled peanuts from her home I’m guessing! Then I decided I should probably go to the back and stand in the entryway to at least watch some of the ordination of the 12 pastors, as that was the main reason for the big day!! They ordained them all together essentially, instead of reading to each individually 12 times-but they each had their own short oath I guess. I went inside a bit and to the back where I saw Sofia so we watched until the rest were done (only about 3). I decided to stay to watch as all of the wives went forward for a special blessing (which took at least 20 minutes)! Then, I moved forward down the center aisle with many others to watch the choirs again, and another 2 offerings happened…during that time I saw another Evangelist friend, Mliga, and we shook hands and said hello!!!! After the last offering, then it was gift time. My goodness, so many people were bringing nicely wrapped gifts (with typical Christmas style wrapping paper that you and I would use) up front. If you knew one of the pastors then you could bring a gift…so obviously that took a while! Finally, it was over. The time was 3pm… everyone filed out of the church, but the new pastors, choirs, bishop, etc made a circle outside the church until everyone was out… the Bishop prayed and then it was greeting time as everyone dispersed to find family/friends and to take pictures. There were quite a few people with cameras/videocameras!! I bought a CD of one of the choirs (the expressive one I think)! I also shook some more hands and Sofia and I said hello to some children!! Oh~ I almost forgot… toward the end of the service, a young boy- Zambro? who was 11 came up to me and said “I want to speak English with you!” haha We talked a little bit, but I wanted to use some Swahili too! After the service he followed us around, and took an interest in my mini kiiSwahili phrasebook! I found PH in the midst of the mass of people and asked if it was possible to meet the bishop and he took me right to him and introduced me, and the Bishop thanked me for being there- in English (he was educated in the U.S.). He was great :) And I even got a picture with him!!!
Well, then it was time for food…and this time, there were 4 HUGE crock pots with 2 different kinds of rice, some chicken pieces, and some sauce for the top… luckily Barbara knew what was going on so we were one of the first few people to eat! We had water and some soda as well!! We ate super quickly as Barbara had to get the 10 guys in the band to a place to catch their bus and she wanted to take us with so we would get back earlier…she knows that PH doesn’t leave (or doesn’t get to) for a while! We took off about 4pm or so and sat in the truck with Barbara while the 10 guys were in the back! It was a great hour or so trip back as we all chatted about church life and denominations and she shared a lot about Islam as well. Basically, the further East you go in Tanzania (closer to the coast) the more Muslims there are… in Morogoro there is a mosque on practically every corner (which I really haven’t noticed, but I guess I haven’t been paying too much attention specifically)… and she said the Christians and Muslims are relatively peaceful with one another.
We got back to the Seminary at 5:30 (a good hour or so before PH) and hung out in the common room (which I’d never done yet!)… Godfrey and Moreto were watching some music videos (English of course) and Olivia had come by for a couple hours… I was able to read/skim a couple English Tanzanian newspapers so that was nice!
Sofia and I went to dinner at 6:15 and I had some fruit (as I wasn’t very hungry) and had a good time laughing with MeeHa and the three Sisters for awhile!! There was also another American family that had arrived!! (more on them later)
I caught up on some writing, although it wasn’t much obviously!! I think I was so tired, or mentally exhausted after being overwhelmed with so much information from Barbara (and well, thanks to the Bishop for his sermon)… that is why I am still a day behind!!
Praying that you are well!!
continually seeking,
Alana :)
"Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young; but set an example in truth, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity" *1 Timothy 4:12
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