Sunday in the African Gospel Village Church and Cow Dedication

Our first Sunday, we attended Bethesda African Gospel Church, which is Tenwek's local church.  This Sunday we had the opportunity to attend a "village church," Kapsimbiri, also in the AGC denomination, and in coordination with Tabitha Ministries to attend a cow dedication for one of that church's members.  If you'll recall from the house mudding blog post, Tabitha Ministries is a women's Bible study which coordinates compassionate outreaches through local churches--mud houses, gift cows and seed/fertilizer for needy women and families.  So we made our way to the village church, the route to which was possibly the worst specimen of roadway yet on the trip.  Hang on, Sloopy!  Our driver said it was a shortcut, which he followed with the life advice of, "And shortcuts are always the most dangerous!" 

Before we can get to the cow dedication part, we must first describe the actual church service part and the fact that it was Compassion Sunday.  There were many parts to the church service--announcements, offering, worship, attendance (attendees raised their hands when mothers, fathers, children and visitors were called to do so), different groups of children and adults did coordinated dances to specific songs, there was a dramatic interpretation of Joseph being reunited with his brothers (done by a group of ladies), prayer, the sermon and more singing and prayer.  We arrived at the church around 10:30 a.m. and walked back outside for the cow dedication around 2:15 p.m.  Yes folks, that's almost 4 hours.  Which is amazing in and of itself but when you consider that aside from our students delivering a message in English that lasted about 30 of those minutes, we could only understand about 10% of what was being said during the other 3.5 hours (even though some of it was translated, the translations were also difficult to understand), let's just say we were ready to dedicate that cow.  

"Rock of Ages" in either Swahili or Kipsigis (the main tribe from this area of Kenya), not sure which.

A leader in the church gave us the guest book and asked us all to sign.

The younger set of children doing their dance for the congregation.  Loved it.  The girl closest to the camera is Angela--more on her later in the post.  Sister has moves!!

This is an adult song and dance during the offering.  We didn't understand at first, but as the offering was conducted, whoever wanted to contribute walked up to the front and either put money in a basket or placed something of value next to the offering baskets on the stage.  After the song was done, the elders held each item up and asked who in the church would be willing to exchange money for the item offered.  Whoever needed a bunch of lettuce leaves, bag of potatoes, eggs, bottle of fresh milk--received the item, gave their money to the elders and that money went in the offering basket.  It shed new light on giving whatever you have.    

Here is one of the elders asking who would be willing to exchange money for the item offered.

The church's hymnals

When the church heard we were coming, they asked us to "preach."  Our students organized the entire lesson themselves and each took a part.  They spoke on a theme of "Unity in Christ" and worked with Hannah, the translator, to communicate for them as they spoke and quoted Scripture.  They first led the church in singing, "Good Good Father," and then each took turns giving their words.  They did great! 

"Good, Good Father" and the two precious little boys sitting next to me.

Solomon gave a word during the service and he and his children danced and sang.  Watch as our team eventually catches the Sunday Morning Fever!

_________________________

As part of the Compassion Sunday offering, one of the members donated a chicken so the leaders basically held a brief, informal auction of sorts where they asked if any church members wanted to bid for the chicken, with the proceeds going to the Compassion offering.  Melissa was quick to offer 1,000 shillings ($10) and she ended up winning the chicken so she could give it to the family who was receiving the cow.  Winner winner, chicken...!

Melissa named the chicken "Noodles," as in "chicken noodle soup."

Melissa pretending Noodles was going to get the children with "bok bok bok" chicken noises for added effect, which they thought was hilarious!

Cow dedication underway. They let our group also name the cow and the name chosen was Abigail, which means, "my Father is joyful."  Abigail didn't seem overly joyful about her dedication and tried to pull away a couple of times.

Hannah, from Tabitha, with hand raised gives a word in honor of the grandmother receiving the cow (in the red plaid blanket to Hannah's right).  Hannah was also the main translator for the day.

This happened to be "Compassion Sunday," where the church had a specific focus for compassionate outreach to its community and a separate offering was taken for this.  Because it was Compassion Sunday, that's why the cow dedication was taking place today and also why it just so happened to work out that Solomon (head PT at Tenwek) and his family attended the same church to deliver a wheelchair to the grandson of the lady receiving the cow (I think I have this right).  Earlier this year, he fell trying to pick avocados from an avocado tree in his yard and sustained spinal cord injuries which paralyzed him from the waist down.  His name is Emmanuel and he is 12 years old. 

After the cow dedication, the ladies of Tabitha asked all of us to line up and sang while handing out gifts to each of us, including our two drivers.  The boys, girls and men received a ceramic mug and the ladies received a shawl.  Their kindness just goes on and on!  After this, the church members served us a lunch of rice, beans, potatoes and a little meat.  So kind.  

The girl singing the solo/lead on this song has the coolest voice.  This was what they sang as they handed out all our gifts.  Confusion toward the end was because they had an extra mug for one of our drivers and couldn't find him in the line.  Peter, come get your mug!  

Mary Taylor, Mamie, Ava and Walker with their tea mugs and shawl they received from the Tabitha leaders.

__________________

After lunch, we proceeded to the home of the family receiving both the cow and the wheelchair.  Once the wheelchair dedication was finished, we thought it was time to head home so we started walking to the van when someone flagged our group down and told us to turn around, they were serving tea!  How dare we think we could leave a Kenyan ceremony without having tea? 

Many individuals spoke at the wheelchair dedication for Emmanuel--both his parents, his grandparents, Hannah from Tabitha, Angela Many, Rose (Solomon's sister who was instrumental in Emmanuel getting seen at Tenwek), Gladys with Tabitha and Solomon.  Solomon is so anointed at what he does both in the clinic and as he relates to and encourages patients and families in their faith. He is so direct, so encouraging, so filled with the Spirit as he speaks.  I could listen to him talk for an hour!  My phone died in the middle of his speech but since this is one of the few recordings we have from the dedication, so I wanted to share it.

Emmanuel in his new wheelchair

Brooke and her little shadow.  This little girl did not let go of Brooke's hand during the entire wheelchair dedication nor the lunch/tea that followed.

Once inside the house, it quickly became apparent that "tea" was actually a second lunch of rice and beans, followed by chai tea (we had just been fed lunch an hour earlier at the church).  One of the little girls who attended the ceremony, Angela, was sitting beside Angela Many on the sofa when they brought the food out.  She said, "They say they are bringing tea and they bring food!  We are not even hungry and have full bellies!  Kenyans are just like this!"  Which made us all laugh.  Angela is a very smart cookie with good English and you will see her above in the videos as the closest one to the camera with the best dance moves in the children's dance at church.  Her father is the pastor of the church.  Several of us fell in love with Angela!

_________________________

And finally, Dean, Lesli and Josh initially hung back and stayed outside as the rest of the team went inside for the second lunch/tea.  We found a bench under a shade tree and thought wrongly we would have a moment of quiet.  We immediately drew a crowd and so we tried to ask all of their names.  Those who weren't too shy would tell us, almost in a whisper, what their name was.  Then we would try to pronounce what they had whispered, say it totally wrong, and all their friends would roar with laughter.  

At one point I looked down and noticed the purple blooms from overhead in the tree matched the new shawl I had just received.  This evolved somehow into all the children thinking it was hilarious to put flowers from the yard in Lesli's hair.  I told them I looked like I'd gone to the salon and they had made me pretty!  They laughed and laughed.  When they ran out of pretty flowers, they moved to giant leaves and then just any random piece of debris lying on the ground!  Haha!