Sunday Worship

We arrived at the church this morning to find it all decorated with branches, ribbons and balloons. There was definitely a party atmosphere in the room. Not only was it our last day with Beroya Revival Temple, it was also a day to celebrate four graduations from the University of Dodoma. The worship service itself was very similar to the evening services we've had all week, but they added the element of communion - specifically to honor our presence with them. They used the little glasses and wafers and had ushers pass them among the people. But there were so many people that they had to pour more glasses of juice. That's a great problem for a church to have! There were moments when the room was standing-room-only, even with all the kids sitting on the floor, so my brother-in-law Clifford wasn't too far off with his vision of running out of places for people to sit :-)

After worship there was a brief break to set the room up for the celebration, then the next event began. It seemed a lot like the church service - music and prayers - but there were also snacks and gifts. The funniest part for me was when they told me that since I was a guest of honor, I would get to feed cake to the graduates, I couldn't imagine how I would feed cake to these distinguished men and woman. It turns out that they put a little piece of cake on a toothpick, and then I put it in their mouth. Everyone cheered and took photos. They did the same a few moments later when they fed cake to me and Clif.

They gave us some lovely gifts, and we gave them two banners for the church. We also gave Pastor Erasto an African Bible Commentary - written entirely by African biblical scholars - and a copy of the Disciple Bible Study workbook. We gave Nessie a Living Water mug and some Kansas City rub to make her Tanzanian food taste even better.

After that we took lots of photos in front of the new building. It was a very long day, but our hearts are full of warm memories of our time with Beroya.

The rest of the day was filled with packing and wrapping up details. We said goodbye to Julianne and Ed and Debra back at the Guest House. They were all such a blessing to us!

I'm really fighting exhaustion right now, but I know that this week has affected me greatly. I'm looking forward to beginning the safari so my mind can rest and my spirit can reflect on all God showed me this week. I don't know how much internet access we'll have on the safari, but I may still try to write down my thoughts throughout the week and just post everything when get back to civilization. Thank you again to everyone who has been praying for me/us. I can't tell you how much your prayers have helped!