Sunday In Swahili

September 6th: Sunday

Weird day. I slept in a bit this morning. Had breakfast at 8 as usual then went with Grace (Unity’s Wife) to Sunday school for the children. At Ten we went into the larger room for the service. Started out with singing. Then Rev. Unity gave a sermon. After that we sung for at least an hour and a half. During the singing a lot of the women were crying and wailing. Some of the guys were yelling and beating their chests. Everyone prays out loud and some tend to yell. All of this was in Swahili. After the service went back and had lunch and then I layed down and listened to a John Piper sermon Dez left on my computer.

That afternoon at four we all piled in thee truck and went to another church service which best as I could understand as a group/community church service for the churches in Moshi. It was a really nice building and very large. Everything was again in Swahili but the guy who gave the sermon spoke in English and Unity translated. This little guy was very passionate. Honestly I think he talked a lot of fluff about now its time for Moshi (the town). I don’t know what he ment. He reminded me of one of my coaches from little guy football giving a pregame peptalk. He didn’t mention Christ or the Gospel at all. When he got really excited he would switch to Swahili and Unity would have to switch to English and then he’d calm down and switch back.

Bit of a rough day. Today seemed to simply compound gap, the barrier that the language and culture provide. Missed my church more today then ever before. I need prayer for this situation. I don’t feel at home or comfortable in the services and I’m not getting anything from the sermons or teachings. On a brighter note though most of the singing is repetitive so I can pick up on that and that has been a joy and a blessing.