LIKE THIS! Those are Ugandan Shillings sandwiched in there. I think this sort of “just make it work” mentality is the very definition of Ugandan ingenuity. There is a story here at the Ranch of how someone spotted a Truck with its hood up driving along the road at full speed. Wondering what crazy driver this was the person passed the truck, only to reveal that a Ugandan was standing on the front bumper of the truck working on the engine while it was speeding down the highway. That is Uganda, friends. One of the primary reasons we came to Uganda was to learn about Christ’s Church as it exists here. We are after all one Church united, so in reality the Church we attend here is actually a part of your Church; we are all one body. One of the most amazing parts of being a Christian for me has been wherever I live I always have Brothers and Sisters nearby.
Our church building! This picture was taking on a Sunday evening so obviously the doors and windows are not closed up like this in the morning. On a Sunday morning it is literally swelling with people - it reminds me of Mars Hill Eastside with everyone crammed in that little building in Redmond, only even more crowded than that, and with wasps flying around your head. The Church is in Ntuuti, which is basically the first village you meet leaving the Ranch property. It’s about a 2 mile walk from our house to church in the morning.
Here is a basic rundown of a church service as we witnessed it so far: We usually arrive around 10:30am and the Service has already begun and been going for some unspecified amount of time but only about half the people have arrived. By 11am the building is pretty much packed. The pews are small wooden benches (about the height of pre-school chairs, I fold my legs as best I can underneath) lined up into 3 rows. The front area near the stage has woven mats instead of benches and that is where many of the children (“youts”, as they call them) sit. To the right of the stage are a few benches angled perpendicularly, where the choir and drummers sit. To the left of the stage is another angled bench with the soundman and keyboardist. The stage is basically a wooden riser with an offering table and chair for the Pastoress.
There is a first sermon given by some guest, which is usually in progress when we arrive. At this point the sound system has not been turned on and things are pretty low key. After that sermon a group of children march up from outside the building onto the stage and begin singing and dancing. Everyone is clapping and some of the ladies in the back of the church will shout out with a piercing African yodeling warcry. The whole time people are walking up and putting coins in the hands of those they liked. Somewhere around now the generator in the back of the church is fired up and the sound system and keyboard are brought online. This group of kids sings and dances down off the stage out of the church while the old ladies stand waving scarfs over them (I think to cool them off but it is also clearly part of their worship of God). Then a group of young men from CLA (those same young men who sang at the fellowship night) march onto stage to a roar of applause (The CLA boys are like the teen heart throbs of Ntuuti, Uganda) and begin singing. WHILE they are singing, the soundman and keyboardist do their sound checks, blowing into the microphones, testing the keyboard, creating all sorts of ugly feedback, and basically setting up the sound system. At some point the keyboardist turns on one of those pre-fab background drum beats (that does not match the beat of the song) and the soundman runs up with the two wired microphones to hand to a couple of the boys (creating more feedback and sound issues along the way), but no one seems to notice the cacophony of noise, chaos and disharmony: What my friend Matthew Josey might call his worst nightmare, the Ugandans consider just normal operations with no sense it could happen any differently (to be fair, petrol for the generator is very expensive, so even a basic sound check may cost a lot).
After the CLA boys are done (to much celebrity fanfare, women fainting, old ladies swooning) congregational singing begins. Everyone stands up, the choir begins singing, the drums begin booming, the keyboardist (who I am pretty sure doesn't know how to play piano) begins hitting some simple keys in rhythm and the congregation erupts with song. We sing, we clap, we dance, it’s great; the hardest part for me is not knowing the lyrics to the songs (most are in Luganda), but I’m starting to pick up a few words. There is one song they sing that is just the word “ Hallelujah” repeated so I can at least join along.
After almost an hour of singing people begin simultaneously praying. Now, I’m not pentecostal so this was all pretty new for me, but I don’t think it’s as extreme as people make it out to be. Some people quietly pray, others pray out loud in Luganda, Swahili or English, and some pray out loud in tongues. To be honest it’s not so far from a prayer night only if everyone was praying all at once. After the prayer a table is brought center stage for tithing. There are several baskets - one is for tithe, one is for thanksgiving, one is for children and I can’t remember the other ones. The choir sings while people worship by bringing up their offerings. Then the Pastoress stands up and we all raise our hands out over the offering and she prays.
Then the real preaching begins. Sometimes it’s the Pastoress who preaches, but more often it’s guest speakers. One person preaches while another translates. What’s interesting is the speaker will switch back and forth between English and Luganda and the translator just has to translate to the other. Listening can be difficult because the moment the preacher finishes a phrase the translator begins, but the preacher won’t wait for the translator, so what happens is you basically have two voices going at all times and you just need to pick out the language you understand. To me it sounds like an average conversation between any two people on the East Coast with both people talking at once, but Heather especially has a hard time with it.
Afterwards we pray some more, sing some more, and then a sort of “tithe bidding” begins. The Pastoress announces how much it cost to run the generator and other operating costs and she begins calling out for people to commit shillings so that there can be a service next week. So one person will raise their hand and commit 500 shillings and then another person will commit 1,000 shillings and on it goes until they have raised enough to have a service next week. Then they announce how impressed they are that Mzungu’s (us) stayed for a whole service, we pray again and that’s it, we’re out about 1:30pm. Heather and I normally make the two mile trek home with a crowd of children following us and holding our hands.
So that is my tour of a church service here in Africa. Here is what I want to say on the whole thing, The African church is not perfect, there are some pretty glaring issues actually, but the beauty of this church service is that it seems so clear to me that God must just delight and smile as these people worship, and ultimately that is what it is all about. There are a few other churches in the area we will be visiting but this will likely be our primary place of worship. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on what we learn and find at other churches.
Join us next week when we tell you about our visit to an African Primary School and our Easter Weekend! Until then I thought I’d leave you with one more little treat.
Now watch the little boy in the blue striped shirt in front of me…
BITER! He totally stole my idea! We miss you all, please continue to pray and write us. And leave us some comments on the blog as well, maybe some ideas of things you would like to hear about on the blog! Thanks for reading!
