We worshipped this morning at Choma Baptist Church. The picture above is of the kids all ready to go--they were so excited!! Blu and I were nervous. In America, you have Sunday School, and then extended session/children's church, so the kids are kept pretty busy. Here you have cement benches, or even huge logs, or the ground for the kids to sit on and keep quiet for approximately 3 hours of church!! On the way, Caedmon asked us if we thought they'd be able to play on the playground at church... :)
We got there and actually arrived late! Most people in Zambia time things by the sun, and you never know when anything really starts, so we shot for 10am but were a little bit late. As we drove up, we noticed the kids all outside under a big tree, sitting on benches, with a woman teaching them. The woman came up to our truck and took Cason, another girl took Cambree, and a boy took Caedmon. She then pointed us inside where they were having adult and youth Sunday School. (Sidenote: we parked in a bed of ants--ants were crawling up my skirt and I was trying to get them out all throughout Sunday School!) So we were inside, and all the kids were outside having their own Sunday School class!
Sunday School for the adults consists of reading a group of Scriptures and then discussing them together. Once it was over, I hear a noise and look behind me and Baby Cason is strapped to an older woman's back. :) He was enjoying the ride!!
Caedmon and Cambree came in and sat with us, but once they realized that the children were all sitting together on the other side of the church, they ran over there to sit with them. We were shocked at how social our kids were!
Church in Zambia always follows a strict "program" or order of service. A woman stood in the front and she is the one who leads the program and lets you know what is happening next. We began with Sunday School reports. All of the children (including the 2 blonde ones!) marched up to the front of the church singing, recited Scripture, and then marched back. Cambree and Caedmon waved to us from the front--the Zambians loved it :) Then, the youth got up and told what their lesson was about, and an adult did the same for our lesson. Then it was time for welcoming the visitors. We both stood and they sang a welcome song for us as they all came forward to shake our hands. Then it was time for "special songs and testimonies." Anyone who wants to share can get up and sing or give a testimony. The women's group got up, sang/marched/danced to the front and sang 3 songs. (the women in churches here wear uniforms. The Baptist uniform is a purple blouse with a big white collar and a white head scarf. I didn't get the memo--I was wearing neon green!) Anyway, then the youth did their special songs, about 3 of them. Then we all sang and marched up to the front to give our offering, put in 2 laundry baskets--one labeled "offerings" and one labeled "building." Then we sang a hymn and it was time for preaching.
Through all of this, our kids did fairly well. They ran over to us several times to give Cason hugs or get a drink of water, or for Cambree to announce "Mama I'm sweaty!!!" but they really did pretty well. The Zambian kids love "taking care" of them, and our kids love the attention!
Preaching was ok---I had moved to the back with Cason by now so I didn't hear much. They preached in English and translated in Nyanja, and we speak Tonga so we were surprised that they didn't translate into Tonga!
By now our kids were about done for-it was HOT and they were hungry. I didn't bring snacks because there would have been so many other kids there, but it turns out almost every kid had brought a bag of chips to eat! Oops!! Cason shared chips with a little girl but the other two were starving. (It was almost 12:30)
When preaching was over (only about a 15 min sermon-that Blu said wasn't theologically correct at all!) they called up to the front all of the church officers for the year 2010. There was a vice president, secretary, treasurer, Sunday School superintendent, youth officers, ushers, children's director, etc.
When it was over we went out singing a hymn and formed a circle outside where everyone shook hands as they went around the circle. By now, the white people were getting very sunburned, so we loaded up the back of our truck with Zambians and headed to the main road so we could go home!
It was a great first Sunday of worship! The women meet every Thursday for fellowship from 2-4, so I think I will try to attend that each week if we are in town. Our church attendance at this church will be sporadic, as we have 3 other churches we need to visit as well.
Now it's naptime :)
