We have had a wonderful first week in Africa! We are staying with Bishop Alick and his family and serving at his church. We went out with members of the church to evangelize, were able to spend time with kids at a school, and we had our first church service here.
when we went to the school and were able to play games, teach a lesson, and sing songs. after we had been inside for a while we took the kids outside to play. we played red rover, soccer, netball, and they taught us some games. One of the games they taught us was a singing game. It went like this:
one child in the middle yells out:
do what i do!
all the others clap to the beat and call out:
i do! i do!
do what i do!
i do! i do!
the child in the middle strikes a pose or does a dance move and yells:
i do this!
all the other children copy the move and yell:
i do this!
the child in the middle does a different move
and i do this!
everyone echoes and copies
and i do this!
then the child in the middle picks a friend and it keeps going from there. some kids just put their hands on their hips, while others shook themselves with more rhythm than i can every hope to have.
later that night, after dinner, me and my team were doing our bible study. we were reading in Philippians 3 and in verse 17 Paul says, “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.”
Wow. we discussed this for a while as a team. would i tell a new Christian to do what i do? Am i a good example? so often we imitate the people we look up to. i want to imitate paul. i want to follow his example and chase after God with the same fierceness that he did.
while traveling to Africa we had a layover in Rome. We were able to go exploring for a while and we went to Paul’s prison. It was so powerful to read the words he wrote at the place he wrote them. Let’s all strive to have hearts that can praise God, even from a prison cell.
