A sweet moment

This Sunday was the first Sunday I've had the chance to go to a Senegalese church. We've been going to the church at the school but since there is no more school there is no more church there. The pastor who I work for with the Talibe invited me several times last week to come to his church especially on June 15th. I wanted to make sure I made it to his church and he was so delighted when we arrived. The church is nothing like I expected and even more than what I hoped for!

The church is about the size of a small bedroom or garage. When we got there the pastor came out and meet Laurie and I welcoming us in and seated us. We then jumped right into to their service. there were about 26 people there. He packed out the house =). We had a some worship lead by Diboku's son on the djembe, who is only 10 and did a FANTASTIC job. I even recognized a few songs even though the words were in French. After a while it really didn't matter.

Nothing could compare to the hearts of these people. You could see it on their faces that they were in love with the Lord. Forget church politics, forget numbers, forget pc, and shout out to the Lord! Religion here isn't a part of life it is life. If you're Muslim you live it out and you hold your faith in such high regard. These Christians are living their Christian faith out the only way they know how to live any faith out, with everything they have.

They had a time of prayer and it wasn't this deacon coming up to pray, it was simply these children (all of them) pouring out their hearts to their Abba. The noise was TREMENDOUS! I can't tell you how many languages there were and couldn't even tell you if they were praying in their language or praying in tongues. I don't know how these people live there daily lives, I know their culture still has great influence on their faith but, their celebration of it was so amazing to be a part of.

I know there is a time and place for everything. There are things in the states I love about church and miss dearly. There are things here that I see and know better because of my "education" that I probably wouldn't condone. The point is we're all going to make mistakes but are we walking to glorify God or ourselves? I only want to do things that are going to be fruitful in the kingdom of heaven.

To hear Pastor talk about how important suffering is in our daily walk and to realize that God is not taking delight in our suffering but sees it's importance. How suffering creates dependence on the Lord, permits us to remember him, and helps us to become more like Jesus, to hear all this and then look at these people's lives and realize the size of their faith verses their circumstance. . .

"God visits you every morning because you are precious and important to Him. He says 'Whatever the difficulty, my beloved, you must preserver."
-Pastor Diboku

I was also welcomed into the church as a sister and they very willingly prayed a blessing over me. They prayed for the sick and prayed for the needy. They enjoy community with each other. They had "church." My definition of church will never be the same. We ended by Diboku asking me to pray the final prayer and were sent out!

That was a sweet moment!