Three days last week we spent 5 hours a day in travel to and from our ministry spot. Although the travel was more draining than I expected,- 2 overcrowded dalla dalla’s (bus), a packed ferry ride and then another extremely bumpy dalla dalla each way,- it was definitely a fun adventure. We were warmly welcomed and quickly asked to come back, (originally we were only supposed to go twice).
Upon our arrival our ear drums were blasted with worship music and the screeching of mics.. I’m pretty sure the whole island heard it. To start off the service they danced and lip synced to African worship music that made it feel like we were in Jamaica.
On the first day Logan and Elle gave their testimonies and I preached about how God wants to have a relationship with us, using the story of Mary and Martha and my life as examples. Before speaking we sang a couple worship songs and they graciously applauded us. I always feel like we’re a let down after their rambuncious worship but then remember it’s for Jesus anyways and we all know what He thinks 🙂 At the end of the service we were thanked and given COLD fantas! (A rare treat in Africa). Later on the pastor asked what my vision was and said “Maybe a pastor or a teacher?” I was like”uhh… nope don’t think so. Still waitin to see what God has for me.” Hahaha. I discovered that we were the first white people to go there! Crazy!
The second day we went we didn’t bring the guitar with us due to the long haul, and because of it our worship went a little differently than the first day. And by a little I mean a lot! If I thought our songs were a let down before, they were down right awful now. Our team doesn’t like to practice songs beforehand. Let me rephrase that, the boys don’t like to practice beforehand and we usually choose the songs during travel or while we are sitting in church waiting to start. Because of the two factors we all started singing in a different key and no guitar to drown out our voices. Eek. I wanted to put my hands over my ears, so I can’t imagine how the congregation felt! Thankfully no one walked out. Oh yeah at the end of the service the pastor got up on stage and told us that we needed to clap when we praise the Lord.
The third day was about the same except we cut it down to one song instead of two and we had once person start us off so we were almost all in the same key.. so I guess it was a lot better. Third times a charm! We were given Fantas again, woot! They were all sad to see us go and insisted that we come back and visit after we’ve been home and tell all our friends and family to go to Tanzania and visit them.
On our ferry ride home we were told that the church isn’t actually on an island but a part of Dar es Salam… haha it’s still an island to me.
