Sunday Service

Church service at Mochipapa church was very unique and amazing. First there was a Sunday School that started at 9 or so talking about the Love of God and what it means to love someone else in return. They used 1 Corinthians 1:1-7. That was for the first part of the hour. Once it hit 10 or around 10, more people started to come in and the church service started.

The sermon was about communion in the church and what significant link it has to Christ’s blood and body that he shed for us. He used the last supper passage in Luke 22:17-20, as well as other passages I cannot remember, but saying the same thing. Prof. Leslie said that today’s communion was the first communion the church has had. I hope that it will still be a very sacred event even when it becomes more common for them to do, as it has in other churches. Next week they will be having a baptism, which I am excited about!

The singing was amazing! I kept thinking to myself how they sound so good without any lessons. God gave them amazing and harmonizing voices! And they sing out, they are not shy to use their voices to praise God and ‘Jesu’ – Jesus. There was very little ‘dancing’ as you might say, they did sway a little, and one of the songs says “higher higher higher, lift Jesus higher, lower lower lower…. Come and see what Jesus has done” and they all put their hands in the air and flashed their fingers to the beat.

At the end of the church service, the Zambians made a line outside of the church to shake everyone’s hands that came out of the church. They shake with the right hand and you go down the line to shake EVERYONE’s hand. It was fun to shake them individually. Then, when you got to the end of the line, you would turn and join the line to shake the oncoming people’s hands. A lot of little kids grabbed my hand to shake it. One little boy wanted to take my hair tie that was on my wrist. He didn’t take it the first time, but the second time (after everyone was done shaking hands) he ran up to me, said something in Tonga real excitedly and snapped that hair tie off my wrist and put it on his and ran off. He did the same thing to another girl in my group. So, now there is a little boy out there with an orange hair tie on his wrist that he got from a magua (white person). Later on, the little boy who had my hair-tie around his wrist came up and grabbed my hand, and another little boy came and grabbed my other hand as well and walked the road with us until we came to the corner to the main road. It was interesting, the boy who took my left hand I think was trying to tell me to stand aside for the car that was coming, but I was trying to tell him that my group was ahead of me. So, I stayed behind and waited for the car to pass. I then, had to get going, but didn’t know how to say good bye, so I just left. I am ridiculous. Goodbye, I learned, was “Mbubo” so, next time I will need to tell them “Mbubo!” instead of just leaving them awkwardly.

God is working and I am so glad that he is also in Africa and not just in one spot on the globe. But, that he is everywhere and in everything. The Zambian people are also very sincere and envelope themselves into the service and worship. There was a time when they could pray out loud, and the voices just over-spilled in that little church. Altogether a great Sunday experience as a guest in a Zambian church!