We attended church this morning at Mawawa Baptist Church. In order to get there we had to travel down very bumpy dirt roads, and then on a road of deep sand. The vehicles had to go in four wheel drive. The service is supposed to start at 9:00, but we got there at 9:30, and most of the people were there by 10:00. There is no concern about time in this culture. They are not in a hurry for anything. When we arrived, we met the chief of this village, then they seated us at the front of the church, as an act of respect to us. Their "choir" was singing and dancing. It was awesome. This church is made of mud with a thatched roof. It is very small (about two-thirds the size of our bus in length and just a little wider), and by the time everyone arrived, there were at least 100 people packed into it. People pressed in every available space. One of the missionaries said he wondered if this was what Jesus felt like when the crowds pressed in on Him. They have crude log benches for the adults, and they placed reed mats on the ground at the front of the church for the children. The choir is seated among the congregation in a group and they just stand where they are when it is time to sing. Young boys play handmade drums, (like bongos), to create the rhythm, and one person starts singing. Then the whole choir joins in perfect harmony. It is incredible, all acapella. The choir "dances" as they sing, but it is like choreographed movements. Everyone seems to know which dance goes with which song. The women have babies tied to their backs in slings (made of their sitanges) and the babies just bounce around as they dance. The singing was all in Lozi. After about 20 minutes of singing from the choir, they decided they wanted to have "Sunday School", so they asked me, and my children, along with one of the missionaries, to take all the children outside. Todd and one of the other missionaries stayed inside and taught the adults.
After about 30 minutes, we brought the children back inside for the worship service. They asked our family to sing. We sang several songs and a translator would tell them in Lozi what each song was about. They recognized "Amazing Grace", and "God is So Good", which they sang in Lozi back to us. Then the choir sang some more and concluded with a song especially for Todd, who was going to preach to them. We were able to pick out the word "missionary" in the song, and they kept doing a motion like we use to mean someone is crazy. We were told that they were singing, "I was crazy until the missionary came to tell me the truth". When they were finished, Todd preached to them about letting their light shine before men so that others can come to Christ. When the service was over, they did not have an invitation like we do. This is a community society, so they make decisions as a whole group, not individually. This particular church was begun because the entire village of Mawawa decided to follow Christ at one time. The chief decided and the people followed. At the close of the service, they sang their way out of the church. The chief went out first and everyone followed. They formed a line and shook hands with everyone. As you leave, you shake with the chief and whoever else is already in line, then you move to the end of the line and shake with everyone else who comes out. In this way, everyone shakes hands with everyone. They form a circle until all are outside, then they finish the song and it is over. It was now 1:00.
No one leaves church to go to the bathroom. By the way, there is no bathroom; just a "pit toilet", which is a hole in the ground. The church had a nicer one than most people do. It had a nice reed structure built around it. They don't dress up in fancy clothes. They have no bulletins, or lights, or electricity, or air conditioning, or padded seats, or carpet... Their worship is real. Its not that any of those things are evil, unless we think we must have them in order to worship God. We have seen hopelessness in the eyes of children and adults all week as we told stories in the compounds, but today we saw hope and joy in the eyes of the people of Mawawa Baptist Church. The difference is Christ in them, the Hope of glory!