Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Kijota - Sunday Worship


November 13

We had morning breakfast at 7:30 and left for worship at Kijota at 8:30.  Arrived at Kijota and greeted once again by Grace Sima with a full breakfast prepared.  Walked to the church after the meal where we met with Pastor Sarah and our translators for the worship service.  The translators were girls from Vivian Gulleen.   

All of us were seated in chairs around the altar, so we were very much front and center.  There were nearly 500 people at the worship service, made up of the Kijota congregation along with two sub-congregations of Kijota Lutheran.  There were six choirs that performed during the worship service and they all had wonderful voices.  The liturgy was also very beautiful with the pastor singing and the congregation responding in song.  Pastor Sarah has a wonderful singing voice, as does the congregation.  It was simply awe-inspiring.  Bishop Sima introduced us to the congregation and each of us gave a few words of greetings, love and encouragement from Mt Olive and discussed the purpose of our trip.   Pastor Laura was asked to give the sermon for the worship service, with Bishop Sima providing translation.  She did an outstanding job and was very well received by the congregation.  We then received gifts of African wraps (clothing) and very nice painted gourds.  We announced our gift of a computer for their congregation for Pastor Sarah to use, and Pastor Laura presented paraments, a cross for Pastor Sarah, and a leather bound version of the ELW hymnal.  At the conclusion of the service, everyone went outside and proceeded to auction off items and goods that people gave for  their offering (eggs, live chicken, onions, etc.).  We shared greetings with many of the congregation after the service, especially the children.

After this, we were invited to Pastor Sarah’s house for lunch.  Then we had a small meeting with Bishop and Grace Sima, Pastor Sarah and some women from the Kijota-Mt Olive partnership committee.  We discussed thoughts and ideas for future partnership.  There were some very exciting ideas passed around that we will explore with Mt Olive when we return.  Pastor Sarah is excited about being able to communicate with us using the new laptop that we provided. 

Al