African Post: The First Retreat - End of Day

So apparently they do have internet. :)

Today was a good day.

We had tea, and bread with peanut butter for breakfast. I could hear the African's singing from inside the house 20 or so minutes before the actual starting time of the retreat. We prayed for the day and went out to the gathering area, a tent set up next to the house.

They had rows and rows of plastic chairs, something unusual for most retreats. At the front they set up a row of chairs for us. I sat on the far end. They sang a couple more songs before my grandfather got up and introduced our family. Then he handed off the mike to my dad. (They had a mike and speaker system set up temporarily for us.) My dad gave his testimony, then my mom, then myself, my brother, grandmother, and then ended with my grandfather's. They sang one more song, and then went into the preaching. My brother and I sat there for the first part before heading inside. We practiced our material for the children’s club we would hold later in the day, and relaxed, drank some enjoyable tea. (The tea is very good!)  Then we went out with our cameras and shot a lot of pictures and video.

There were these cute little African kids who would watch us from the open gate. I smiled and waved to them, in response they excitedly waved back. They were a bit shy though.

My mom came and found me and asked me to do the song "I Want to Know Christ" (A CYIA song) as a short presentation for the adults. I agreed and after my grandmother finished her talk, sang it with my mom for the Africans. They seemed to really enjoy it and joined in with us when we sang it a second time. Afterwards was lunch and one of the ladies came up to me, she wanted to write down the words of the song. I offered to write them down for her and give it to her after lunch. (Which I did)

Lunch was rice, (a luxury) beef (another luxury) and this really tasty cooked cabbage dish. The food so far has been very, very good, and I've adjusted to the different tastes quickly.
Yesterday we had beans, the cabbage, and nsima (also known as ugally) for dinner. I've had quite a few African dishes growing up, so the nsima was a real treat. Though the tea, having it from a young age, has been my favorite part of Africa, food wise.

After lunch they started up the retreat while Andrew, my mom, and I practiced our club stuff. I made a memory verse visual in Chichewa while my mom practiced the Missionary story, and Andrew the verse. They both are doing a great job!
My grandmother helped us figure out which words would not good for translation, as we would have a translator for the children’s club.  I practiced the Bible Lesson and how to do a group Salvation message.

At 3:30 we set up for the club (I promise pictures later!!) and Andrew and I went and played with a wordless book colored soccer ball in the street after 3 minutes we had one child and in under 8 minutes we had fifteen.

The translator had gone to get some children and when he returned I got the soccer ball and we got the children to sit down.

We sang the song "I Want to Know Christ" with them, it took a lot of repetition for them to learn the first part in English, but our translator knew what he was doing. 

Then Andrew did the Bible Verse and I held the visuals. (English and the homemade Chichewa) He did very well, he hasn't gone through the training I did, and he was dealing with explaining something to another culture. I know I would have done as well at his age.

I went into the Bible Lesson, which normally I have a hard time making it last. However, I was fitting in the wordless book with the story and getting it translated. This nearly tripled the length.
I used the soccer ball with the different colors to do the wordless book. I figured it might get their attention more.
Anyway, it went well, I did a group salvation prayer and nearly all of them prayer aloud so that is hard to judge. (Quick note, African prayer is really cool; when someone says "Lets Pray" Everyone bows their head, closes their eyes and prays aloud to themselves, quite loudly. So if you stand there you hear many, many prayers. I experienced something like this at CYIA, when they did a prayer concert. It is really amazing, hearing all the people around you, also praying to God. You feel surrounded by fellow believers and you feel even more grateful to God.)

After the Bible Lesson which was over an hour in length. (Usually should be less than 20 min, mine usually are only 15.)

We did two action songs, the first one is "How Wide and Deep and Long and High" the second one, "The Hippo Song". The hippo song was by far the favorite. I plan to post a video of it at some point. It makes me laugh when I rewatch it.

After we sang the Hippo song a second time, I said a prayer and we told the children goodbye.

They didn't leave right away, and some of them came up to me and would touch my arm before running away and giggling with their friends, daring one another to go touch the white girl. I held my hand out and they gradually got bolder till they were all tugging on my arm.  They seemed very curious.

We had brought chairs out to set our visuals on and the children helped carry them to the house. I told them "Zikomo", thank you in Chichewa, and they smiled brightly and giggled at my American accent.

Later as I told them goodbye and I would see them tomorrow, the last little girl, waved to us and said "God Bless You!"

I smiled and waved "God bless you!"

As she disappeared out the gate I smiled, that little girl had made it all worth it.



Today was a good day.

Thank you for your prayers.

Thank you to God.