A couple of weeks ago, Kerrie and I loaded up the car with Sudanese and headed out to another part of town (different from the first service in Mpererwe) for another church service. This one was important for a couple of reasons: it was a combined service with ALL of the Sudanese churches in Kampala, Kerrie and I were going to share our lessons with many church members as a test run, and there was a pre-independence performance. It was quite a spectacular day!
The Sudanese share the church with Ugandans, so when we arrived [early], we had to wait for a while for the Ugandan service to end. I took the opportunity to take some pictures (of course)…
When the service started, Kerrie and I tried to sneak in and sit in the back with Angelina and the kids, but unfortunately David wasn’t having it! He moved us to the VERY front of the massive church, elevated behind the choir pews even. So, the only two white people in the house ended up on stage in front of everyone…in seats of honor, of course. I wonder, is it still an honor if the guests of honor are miserable in the seats given to them? =)
They had a really neat performance put on by a large group in which they sang songs and danced to celebrate southern Sudan’s coming independence. There was even a song in which they sang that the Arabs would be heading back north with their suitcases after July 9th!
After SIX hours of church, Kerrie and I went with Daniel and his family to a fast-food joint here called I Feel Like Chicken Tonight (it’s like a Ugandan KFC). It was another really great and very interesting day!
Some interesting sidenotes:
-We took communion with the Sudanese, and I usually pray over my bread and wine before I partake, just to thank Christ for the sacrifice that He made for me. Well, apparently I was taking too long for the woman next to me, because she shoved my hand up to my mouth so that I HAD to take the bread right THEN! Not exactly the way I’m used to taking communion!
-The service was supposed to begin at 1:00, and it started at around 2:00.
-When Kerrie and I read our lessons to the small group at the end to make sure that they were culturally appropriate/easy to understand, instead of the Sudanese giving real feedback, they talked mostly about how we needed to expand the radio towers to all of their villages.