Every other week, when we don’t have house church, my team and I go to the local church near our compound. At first for me it was a culture shock, the people are very expressive and contain a lot of energy, when it comes to worshipping and praising the Lord, it was a lot to take in and a bit overwhelming. A lot of amens and hallelujahs! On top of that I did not understand the language, therefore the sermon or the songs of praise. There are cultural differences in their worship and the way a service is organized. While my church back home is an hour tops, my church here goes for 3 hours or more. Over time I began to see church in a completely different way. We go for a relationship with our heavenly father. We don’t always need to understand a message in church to grow in intimacy with Him. Although I did not comprehend everything always, I would continue to praise God, hands raised worshipping Him! Praising God is simply praising God! I perceived it as a time to spend in spirit, praying to Him! I would have so much time just to sit in His very evident presence. We go to build up the body, our presence there was an impact on the church community by increasing its numbers and showing its significance. In 1 Corinthians 12: 12-14, “Just as the body, though one, has many parts, but all it’s many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” As I sat praying during the service one day, God gave me a vision of Him sitting on top of the mountain that is overlooked right outside the church building with all of heaven behind Him looking to all of us in the field at the foot of the mountain dancing in praise, exclaiming “these are all my children!” I love to see how behind each individual there is so much freedom and passion in worship of our father! I got to play with the kiddos who came up to us during the service and make friends with the lady sitting to my right, as best I could despite the language barriers. The one thing we knew we had in common though was the Lord, it gave us a space to interact and share a love and kindness. The church is not simply a place I go to every Sunday but a body of imperfect people all striving for a relationship with God. Anywhere we go we can be the church. Simply speaking we as children of the Lord are a moving church!
