Church

Church today!  I don’t have much time to write, but I’ll quickly fill you inJ.  The church was at least 600 people, most likely many many more, but that’s my guess.  Everything was in Venda, other than the sermon, which was translated.  It lasted 3 hours, I became so hot and started to nod off til a woman lent me her fan, thankfully.  Because of the fact that I did not understand anything, I was welcomed with quite a surprise.  The mother in my host family nudged me about 1 hour into the service and told me to stand up.  Sure enough, I hear something that sounds like VandenBerg, and then hear America.  So there I stood, in front of everyone while they looked and clapped.  Luckily I was already red from being hot, but I’m sure I turned 6 shades brighter the minute I stood up: as if I didn’t stand out enough already!  But I felt very welcomed by most of the people.  I know that some still need to get used to me being around, and I can understand and accept that.  Basically, dancing, shouting, physical movement, and singing are the basis for the worship service.  Thinking back, I am realizing how important it is to be able to respond in some way to the salvation God has given us.  Our whole being needs to praise the Lord.  I am not saying we all need to go crazy and start dancing, but I do think we need to take our bodies into greater consideration when we worship.  We have been blessed with a mind, heart, soul, and body from the Lord.  Our WHOLE being is to praise the Lord.  I know that I do not follow that in my times of worship.  I guess that is my challenge for you all; take time to reflect on how you are using every aspect of your being to take part in worshipping God.  Yes, it will take you out of your cultural comfort zone, but it is important to live out our culture, but not let us cripple our response to what God has blessed us with. 

There you go.  There are my Sunday night thoughts.  Hope you all had a blessed Lord’s day, too!