Day 5: Church--Wa

God is working strong here in Wa. He is using His disciples to expand the Goods News so that the needy can have hope. I have never seen anything like it in my life. The presence of the Lord is overwhelming and it is filling my heart with joy. To think that Africa is a broken, devastated, and hopeless place is so false. To speak of Africa in this way is foolish. There is a future here; I know it.

We attended mass and it is unlike any church service I have ever experienced; people were authentically in love with the Lord. There were drums, dancing, uncoordinated clapping, and roaring laughter during the sermon. People were dancing for Jesus! To experience praise so unbridled is indescribable; words cannot measure how easy it is to see their love for God. Worship in the U.S. is so different; it wasn't too long ago that we introduced soft music into our service (and even that was controversial). Those good old traditional Church of Christers would have a heart attack if they experienced raw African Christianity!

But why does worship rituals matter so much in the U.S? Why do we waste our energy on something so meaningless? Not to say praise is meaningless, but the way we do it is; God knows our hearts and a guitar isn't going to persuade Him otherwise. Where our true concern should be is in the welfare of others and how we can better serve them. We met reverend brothers (men training to be reverends) at their house. Once again, we experienced the most amazing hospitality as we sipped Coke over discussions on how to help AIDS victims become more accepted into society. Evelyn's latest project is pairing AIDS-infected women with a healthy woman; a real friendship, of sorts. How simple and astonishing, a perfect example of Christ's love. Nothing is being done except showing love to an outcast. Jesus is alive! so alive. Evelyn is a saint in disguise and I want to help with the women here. She keeps hinting at us coming back, and I think I'm going to.

There are many opportunities to help here in Wa. First, the women in Evelyn's groups make traditional African fabric to gain profit for their families. Very similar to Eternal Threads. They do now sew, but Kat and I are planning on bringing some fabric back to the States and making shirts to sell to the youth (we decided to use the African craze to our advantage). We also want to present the fabric to a company and see if they want to use it for their products. We just want to support the women in Wa. Second, Evelyn is opening a school for HIV-orphaned children next year, and I'm sure she'll need plenty of teachers. I guarantee there is a group of Pepperdine students who would love to work with the children. I personally fell called to work with the women. These are, of course, just ideas floating around the heads of myself and Kat. We will pray and see what God has to say about it. In the meantime, we are grateful to experience the Lord in a real way. Americans have a lot to learn from Ghanaians: Jesus has no legal ties except to live your life for Him. If only Americans would really take Jesus seriously when He said, "follow me", our world would be so much different.