Africa has been teaching me so much about worship.
Since our first day on this beautiful continent, the Lord has shown me what true freedom and joy can come from worship with your whole heart. In Rwanda, we watched the church almost every day of the week spend time in praise and worship for hours without even thinking twice. When they were in that space with God, everything else fell away, and they could be completely free and uninhibited in the Lord’s presence.
This really wasn’t as hard to get used to as I thought it would be. After coming from a churches in the US that begin to get fidgety after the 4th worship song, I thought I would have a harder time adjusting to the sheer amount of time spent in worship, but it didn’t phase me at all. We spent at least 3 hours or each service in praise and worship, and the time just seemed to fly by. I felt so close to the Lord in those moments, and by the time we were done, sometimes I didn’t want to leave. We’d leave a church service and our translator would come over to our house and teach me kinyirwanda worship songs and we would sing for another hour after church was over.
This is the attitude we should have in worship. We shouldn’t be checking out watches to see when the songs will finally be over. We should be soaking in God’s presence and allowing Him to speak to us however He wishes in those moments. God wants us to sit before His throne more often, and we shouldn’t be so eager to leave His throne room. Our squad carried this into Uganda when at debrief, my dear friend Sarah pulled out a guitar just wanting to jam, and it turned into one of the most beautiful and organic times of worship I had ever been a part of. It wasn’t scheduled. No one told us we had to, we were just so full of the joy of the Lord that we were overflowing with God’s praises.
In Uganda, I learned a very different lesson. The Lord called me into a singing fast for the month, which is probably the hardest thing I have fasted during this race. I felt like He was calling me to do this because I needed to learn a lesson in humility, and that I need to make space for others to worship the Lord and not feel like it always has to be me. This month was our ATL month and every morning we began with worship, which sometimes was a teammate playing guitar and singing, listening to a playlist of worship music, or sitting in imaginative prayer and reflecting on God’s word. This month really made me rethink my attitude in worship, because when I wasn’t singing, I had to be even more mindful of stepping into God’s presence. I had to readjust my focus from my desire to sing to my desire to be in God’s presence, and that changed everything.
I felt like I could feel the Lord speaking so clearly to me, and my quiet times and sabbaths were so sweet. I felt like I began understanding the Lord in new ways and it’s all because I laid down my own pride and let God be the focus instead.
Kenya has taught me what it means for the Lord’s praise to ever be on my lips. We did ministry with 2 other teams this month, and with many people sick and struggling, we all felt tired and drained. So many people were craving times of worship to be refilled and rejuvenated, so I tried my best to do some kind of worship every day while we were together. Sometimes the set list was planned, but often times it wasn’t, and we would just sing as the spirit lead.
It was kind of difficult going from a month of not singing or leading at all to singing and worshipping almost everyday. The first day I lead worship I had to do a serious heart check. Was I signing just because I was happy to be singing again, or was I singing for the glory of the Lord? I wrestled with that a lot this month, and I’ve found what makes the difference, and it’s all about focus. I can still sing and lead worship and be truly centered on God. Some of the best worship sessions we had were times that when I was leading, I almost forgot where I was because I felt so close to the Lord. As I was worshipping, I was praying for His spirit to revive us and reignite us, and He was faithful. He gave us energy and endurance and encouraged us through the people we were working with at the YWAM base we were serving at. Many of them loved to worship, too, and I learned some new Swahili songs as well. We got to lead a kids day camp with them, and one of the kids’ favorite chants was when someone would shout “PRAISE THE LORD!” And they would reply by saying “Amen, Hallelujah, Amen!”. We would shout it at the top of our lungs and even though we were tired and sick, we still gave glory to God and He gave us the strength to carry on.
After our first night at the base, some of them nicknamed me “worshipper”, mostly because they couldn’t remember my name. I thought it was funny that they called me that and asked what it meant in Swahili, and they said it was “mwanasifa”. I loved this name and I asked if that could be my Kenyan name, and they said sure, and some of them called me mwanasifa for the rest of the month.
Now “mwanasifa” literally translates to “child of praise”, but ironically, it can also be used to describe someone who is prideful, or likes to praise themselves. I thought this was interesting, considering this was what the Lord was teaching me this month, on how to be more like a child of praise, and less like I’m just praising myself. I think most people who are gifted in worship and art struggle with this (shout out to all my 4 friends out there!) and while this name was originally a compliment, the flip side of it is also a humbling reminder of what I need to do in order to praise God fully and genuinely, and the fact that in the weakness of my pride, I need to rely on God to humble me and strengthen me.
Going into Ethiopia, I have no idea what God will teach me next. We have a debrief coming up, as well as PVT, and we are in charge of coordinating 9 worship sets for the squad and for our parents. I don’t know what God is going to do with those times of worship, but I know He is going to do something amazing, and bring revival, healing, and freedom to people. I hope I get to share some testimonies of the worship in Ethiopia soon, so stay tuned!
