We were invited to speak at a village church this weekend, perched high on a range adjacent to Mt Meru. The drive there was harrowing, with a light rain making the steep muddy track even more treacherous. After half and hour of off-road driving, negotiating the rugged slope in our borrowed wide-wheel base Nissan, we emerged out of the fog to find ourselves in the village of Songoro. On the coldest days they have snow there. The church is an empty concrete shell; no glass in the windows. Our warm welcome offset the cold weather.
David preached on our all being in full-time ministry, from the retired politicians and civic leaders present, fathers, mothers and grandparents, to the young school kids in the church (among whom were 14 year old twins called PrayGod and PraiseGod).
At the end of the service, each grouped prayed for each other during which time the pastor leant over to David and excitedly whispered, "This has never happened before!" It was great!
Afterwards, as part of the farewell ceremony, we were given a live rooster, 5 litres of milk, vegetables and a branch of cooking bananas. What an honorarium... it meant so much!
The service all took over 3 hours, with lots of singing and dancing.
We were invited to a home for lunch where we enjoyed stew, bitter greens and chai (sweetened white tea). Our hosts were cheese-makers, producing gouda, mozzarella and feta, all hand-made without electricity available in the area.
We'd left home at 8:30am and got home at 6pm, just in time for a planning meeting!
It's Monday now - I'm tired...
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