Church

Every tribe and tongue and nation is going to be praising God around His throne, and for wanderers like me, we get a chance to see what some of that is like before hand. Of course, many places in Africa and Asia are already practicing for eternal worship with seemingly interminable worship services. In India, church wasn’t actually too long, but that may be because I never quite managed to make it on time. I was never the last one there, though, so that was OK. Here I don’t even get to be the last one there because I have to rely on others to take me to their services, as I’m still learning my way around here, and I don’t have any other mode of transportation.

Repent insisted we leave my house no later than 10:15, although church starts around 11:00 because he is a pastor there, and he has to be early (OK, he wanted to leave at 10:00, I convinced him 10:15, we left at 10:25ish). Of course, when we got there early, we all sat around under a tree together for the next hour, since church didn’t start on time anyway.

The view from under the tree--I took photos while I waited

Church here is held in some kind of building, usually made of mud and straw with small tree trunks propped up on sticks as pews. Usually they are decorated with some kind of tinsel and string and paper flowers, which is, interestingly, the same thing they do in rural India. Another similarity in decorations of Indian and South Sudanese churches: the obligatory picture of stoned, white Jesus presiding over the altar of the church.

Getting the drums ready for church

There are many church traditions that these lovely people definitely inherited from zealous missionaries of the past, but I love that they put their own twist on them, unlike in other places I’ve been (yes, I’m talking about you, my beloved Gereja Baptis Indonesia). The children’s choir wore choir robes, but they also danced in to the church, singing at the top of their lungs, beautiful Moru praise songs (Moru is the main tribe here in Mundri). We collected the offering in those special bags with wooden handles, but one person held the bag at the front while everyone danced up to put their money in it. We also had several loud and long series of announcements (which is usually only about 5 minutes at the end of an American service), and several enthusiastic testimonies followed by clapping, cheering, and ululating. Introduction of guests is also somewhat standard: stand up, say your name, where you’re visiting from, be humiliated in front of hundreds of people, etc.

A blurry photo of the inside of the church-sadly for you guys, the rest of my photos refused to load

This past Sunday, I think that was a bit of a different type of service. I think we might have skipped the main sermon because one lady’s testimony went really long and I think she might have usurped the time. I guess even for Africa, 4 hours is about all you can take, numbing your buns on wooden seats, hoping for a cool breeze to come in the door. When the man came up to talk after the lady, I was afraid he was about to start on his typical 1-2 hour sermon, and I was wearily steeling myself for  another go-round, but he must have noticed the glazed eyes and increasingly loud whispering in the crowd. He spoke about 15 minutes, and then we sang again and then it was over.

My favorite part was when Repent jumped up in the middle of the lady’s testimony with a shaker made out of a gourd (I think) and started singing loudly and jumping around. He was immediately joined by the rest of the church, people coming up to the front or dancing from their seats. I joined in the dance with the children who had all been sitting beside me patting my hair. We jumped up and down for at least 15-20 minutes without stopping. After the first 5 minutes when I realized what we were committed to, I put on my long-distance running endurance face and went for it. I wasn’t even too stiff the next day.

I’m not sure where I’ll be in church next Sunday, but I definitely hope the service includes some jumping. It's great when you can get a work out in church.