...and then there's church in Africa.
It's very easy to see from the beginning that it's heartfelt from people who really depend on it for encouragement, solace and just plain keeping it together. It's also clear that it's pretty much the only entertainment option on Sunday so why rush. Church members usually start filtering in around 7:00 in the morning for a 10:00 am service and it goes on until 1:00 or so in the afternoon. The starting point isn't always distinct. There's lots of singing and loud spontaneous praying and eventually the bigwigs take over and do the readings and commentary.
The Church run by the Pastor who ran the orphanage was a Full Gospel Church. Knowing nothing about the denomination I just wanted to see what it was like and hopefully get off the hook if it was in another language. Language was a curious topic in the Full Gospel denomination since the US branch insisted all its members speak in tongues. The Kenyans basically passed muster since more often than not conducted services in three languages anyway to accommodate their listeners.
The sermon topic the day I went was a scriptural basis for the Last Supper. Having been raised Catholic it was quite a relief. They even had a communion service. For all my trepidations it was all very fun and friendly. Children would go freely from one lap to the next. There were enough processions around the church so no one had to sit too long. It all worked out quite nicely.
My only complaint was with all the wonderful unaccompanied singing, they still insisted on playing a cheesy Casio keyboard complete with cheesy beats. When the congregation started singing in one key Chege kept playing in a totally different one...for the whole song. When he told me their keyboard had been stolen he hoped I would pray they got another. As far as I was concerned, my prayers had been answered.
