Beth Beckman: I love African churches! They know how to worship God with loud voices and lots of dancing…just awesome! We attended Pastor Joseph’s church in Walewale (pronounced wah-lay-wah-lay) this morning. After an hour of sweaty and colorful singing and dancing, Ray greeted the church, Pete introduced the team, Emily and I taught them a new song with only 5 simple words, and Mama Laura taught from Philippians 2. They excused us from church a little early (after 2 hours) so we could setup for the recording of choirs in the afternoon :-)

After setting up our ‘recording studio’ (Pete’s laptop with Paul’s borrowed microphone attached to a tripod), the choirs filed in…colorful clothing, timid smiles and excitement to share their songs with their neighbors. Once again loud voices filled the air with rhythmic steps and sometimes local instruments. Laura and Emily were at work taking lots of video and pictures while Beth worked with Joshua to log the choir names, villages and song titles. Maybe Emily will teach one of the songs to the kid’s choir when we return.

Example of Audio

Another highlight of the day was that the chief from Wuluru that we met yesterday came to share how be became a Christian. He also sang a Mampruli version of the old song ‘By and By’ as part of his story. We can’t wait to hear Joshua’s translation of the songs and the chief’s story.

In the middle of the day a local group of drummers and dancers came to perform at the church. With their legs adorned with bits of scrap metal, the dancers stomped to the frantic beat of the drums. The whole room bobbed, twirled, and circled the room to the throbbing, deafening beat of the drums while a choir sang. The celebration was so loud we are not sure the microphone could handle it. An African celebration.

By about 6:00pm we were wrapping up, and the kids were enjoying the cooler weather. A few very timid sprinkles of rain reminded us that the rainy season will begin soon.

Back at the guest house, we enjoyed a pasta dinner made outside under the stars on one of Pete’s camping stoves before showering off many layers of sweat from another 105 degree day!

Thank you, Lord, for sharing these beautiful people with us today!