The One With The Special Church Service (written 9/9/2012)

Evidently the church services in Kafule are exceptionally short by Tanzanian standards (to the disappointment of many of the teachers whom I talked to about it).  They usually last about 2 hours or so.  But this is apparently a weekend for celebrations because there was a special church service which included a bunch of people from neighboring villages.  Dahlia and I went with Makala, a fellow teacher, and stayed for about 4 hours… apparently these special services can last for 6-7 hours! But the part that we did see was a lot of fun!  There is a children’s choir that led about half of the worship and it literally brought tears to my eyes! The kids were unbelievable joyful, so full of life and energy, dancing their hearts out in front of the church.  I was able to get a Swahili Bible before arriving in Kafule so I could follow along for the scripture readings.  The pastor asked Dahlia and I to get up and introduce ourselves which we managed to do all in Swahili.  I am really looking forward to attending church here regularly!  Tomorrow starts school so I am headed to bed early tonight and looking forward to writing about the first day tomorrow!