Missions
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| Sunday May 11, 2:00pm [ Gweru, Zimbabwe ] | ||||
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The Sony camcorder I borrowed from Todd back home was acting up (and continued to do so for the rest of the trip), but I managed to get a good chunk of video anyway. The problem was that it would not start filming or retract the cassette if the camera was “cold” – i.e. had not been used in the last hour. I would have to fully eject and attempt to load the cassette several times while it was powered on before it would eventually retract it, engage the write heads, and allow me to record. That was initially a frustrating distraction for me when I went to services like this Sunday morning, but eventually I managed and just used my Canon s5 IS still camera more. It had video capability too. Four of us stayed for the morning service at Daylesford (next to Fanny’s). Claudio was taken to preach at Mkoba church, Rick to Town church, and Steve to Senga (from what I remember).
I’ll try to describe a little of the Daylesford service. It doesn’t always start at a set time, but people start singing for a while as some extra sound and microphone equipment are set up by Mark and Simba. I actually prefer this a cappella singing because it sounds more natural and matches the impromptu gatherings that the Zimbabweans may have during the week. Otherwise, with substandard equipment and my not understanding the Shona language, everything tends to blend into the harsher mechanical buzz of the amplifier. That morning, the equipment was not functioning too well anyway, so much of the service just went non-amplified whether the leaders were holding mics or not.
We Americans sat up front again, facing the congregation. This is somewhat awkward for us, but we need to respect their show of respect for us. By 10am, things were rolling. A Shona service has a lot of song and dance, which is cool, but difficult for even one with a sense of rhythm to mimic. And lacking that sense, I had to content myself with handclapping and swaying for the most part. They sing both Shona songs and some English hymns with either Shona or English words. Martha gave us a Shona songbook, which is very helpful and will be a precious keepsake from the trip. They also sing a lot of choruses that can repeat numerous times. At Daylesford, there is a cleared space up front where many people (mostly younger women and a few men) come up to dance their way through a song. The younger children sit on the floor off to the right and don’t dance unless everyone is standing up for a song. Everyone standing is common though. It is as if you have to wait until a certain age until you get the privilege of joining the main group of dancers. However, when the “specials” are performed, the young children might be front and center when it is their group performing. Otherwise they are quiet and respectful.
Everyone gets involved in worship in some way. On particular popular choruses, the elders (older men) move just as energetically and with as much or more joy as everyone else. “Specials” are handled by request during the service. I noticed several times that a brief note was scribbled on a scrap of paper and handed to one of the worship leaders. These written notes would eventually get arranged in a particular order and then the persons or groups would get called up front to perform or lead the special song. So these specials are not something the leaders were requesting the congregation to do; rather it was the other way around. Some other elements of the service included:
Basically, the service lasted as long as necessary and no one is worried about rushing out. They have miles to walk home anyway, so they are more than willing to have the time spent be as meaningful and unrushed as possible. It was amazing to see how many people were reported to be there – 300 in that little church building. That’s more people than in a Meadow Park church service in probably 1/8th the space. Grant it, that a good number of those at Daylesford were infants – so many women have infants strapped to their backs with a wrap.
After the service, four women were baptized right outside the church in a concrete baptistery filled with cold water. There was definitely some authentic shuddering going on there as they went into the water and came up. But there was also much rejoicing and it was a powerful way to bring closure to a powerful morning for us visitors. Nonetheless, we had trouble breaking away for lunch.
Aaron, Irene, and I spent some time taking pictures of the many children that were very excited to see themselves framed in an LCD display. We also got to visit with some of the members and hear about their dreams for the church. There is more land just a block or two away that many consider would make an ideal location to migrate to. They are not concerned about raising the money to purchase the land or build on it. The gentleman I spoke with said that they are only praying for the landowner to be willing to sell at this point. If he is willing to sell, then they are confident that God will provide for the rest of the process to fall into place. Fanny asks that the U.S. congregations lift this request up in prayer.
Click here to see additional pictures of the kids and the service that morning.
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Windows Media Video clip(s):
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