Themba invited us to his youth group this morning. Nothing is close around here, so we had to get a 2 hour head start. We were supposed to meet Themba at the halfway point around 9am. Zulu culture has no emphasis on time, so he showed up around 9:45. Although we were very late, it seemed like no big deal. We arrived to the start of a very typical African church experience. The church, about a ten minute off-road (uncomfortable) drive in the middle of rural South Africa, was jumping with music. Loud singing, lots of dancing, off beat clapping, and the synthesizer keyboard rocking. It’s so funny attending church here because you have NO idea what is going on the majority of the time. Everything is in Zulu. We’ll sing a song, we sit down, someone starts to give a sermon?, someone stands up and starts singing, we stand up, dancing starts, clapping starts, and it all repeats. I swear it seems like there’s no organization to it whatsoever. Occasionally people will hand you a hymnal and point to where we are in the song, as if you can read Zulu. After about 30 minutes of singing and dancing, the message starts. The synthesizer piano continues playing throughout the entirety of the sermon, which I find interesting… and distracting… but not like I can follow the message anyway. Midway through the sermon the baby on the woman’s lap next to me pees on her. So as she went and cleaned up I got to enjoy an hour sermon- in Zulu- in a small hot church with pee baking in the seat next to me. There are many times that I find myself thinking… “wow, that really just happened.” This is definitely one of them. I laugh a lot here.
Anyway, after the message we had a 5 minute intermission (church is now half over) and it pretty much repeats for the second half. Not quite anything like The Chapel. It’s like a 3 hour ordeal. As much as it is entertaining, I do have to stop and realize just how cool it all is. The same God you and I sing to in our American churches is being worshipped-- in an entirely different way--here in South Africa. It’s so easy for me to get wrapped up in my little corner of the world. I’m so thankful to get to see a new culture. To step into a world different from mine back home. It helps me see how big God is. How creative He is in what He has created. How much bigger life is than my little corner of the world. God has created so many different people, with different styles, preferences, and surroundings… And He calls us to live as One Body and to bring glory to His name. What an honor to see another culture loving God in their own way.
So “youth group” turned out to be a church service, three hours long … that started nearly one hour late. What a day.
Wow, so that was the Saturday service. Do they do the same thing on Sunday and other week days? When I was in Nicaragua, I discovered the service is at least 2 hours long for 6 days a week, but slightly better organized. The singing was occasionally on key by accident, but that did not matter as long as someone was led to lead another song.
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