Mosi Moment
South Luangwa Anglican Church July 2006
Wherever I go there is one thing that I always try and do and that is go to church. A discipline taught to me by my Father, a budding priest before he met my Mother, who I hasten to add is a confirmed atheist. So as far as I can tell, I have ended up somewhere in the middle and I have to say that not many things in life give me greater pleasure than too sit in the stillness of churches and be surrounded by a people that have an overriding warmth, wherever the nation and whoever the God.
So when Mrs. Fryer arrived (a long standing Robin Pope Guest and someone that I think that everybody should have the pleasure of meeting in life) and expressed an interest in the said subject I promptly volunteered to accompany her. With Jonah by our side, along with his mountains of patience and buckets of good humor off we marched. I think we must have arrived around 9.30am and of course were greeted with exceptional kindness by all who were present and escorted to our seats (right at the very front). Forty, fifty minutes passed and the good sized concrete church, with its six very tiny cross shaped windows began to fill up, women on one side, children in the middle and men on the other. Not that we had been uninterested for a second. The choir, standing a few pews back sounded as though they had dropped straight from heaven. The voices were simply out of this world. The soprano, with baby on hip, and skirts a flowing sang with an energy that I can only imagine. We were utterly moved and I think I am right in saying that the picture of those singers with the dusty morning light and their spirit of song will stay with us forever.
So, after we had been introduced to the rest on the congregation and bibles had been produced the service began. And what a service. The Head Pastor was just incredible to watch and listen too. He was simply beautiful and I don’t think that one word or gesture escaped a single member on the right hand side! Sue and I were defiantly glued to every word, not that we understood any words, but we made a darned good attempt at trying too. So after about two hours of vigorous shouting and dramatic acting, the ‘Mothers Union’ with their blue head scarf’s and white dresses sang and swung their hips round this little (rather hot by now) church in utter harmony.
I think it must have been the second in command who then came up to us and asked if we wished to stay for the end, another fifteen minutes. Seeing as we had already been there for nearly three hours it seemed silly to leave, even though the seating had become a little cramped as more and more bottoms pushed themselves on to the end of the benches. Another twenty or so minutes passed before what I was dreading the most and thought we had escaped, happened. A compulsory invitation to stand in front of the congregation, be formally introduced and say a fair few words about GOD. The first thought literally being OHHH MY GOD. Sue in all her grace with a touching confidence and a gentle voice spoke beautifully (through our interpreter), with relevance and point about her church in London and what this morning had shown her. Relieved that she had done such a good job and obviously spoken for the both us I smiled graciously and made a leap to sit down. Mid leap I was caught by a warm face and firmly pushed back onto centre stage to share my thoughts, which at this point were a limited mess.
In true British style I promptly thanked them very very very very much for having us… and again, and then, I struggle to remember, but I believe I managed to squawk something about us all being Gods Children. Ohhh Lord, I thought, why do you never give us the words when we want them? As you can imagine I was bowled over when I received an enthusiastic Alleluiah. I felt utterly uplifted and totally refreshed, if not slightly sweaty, confidence in oneself had been restored.
At the end of the day through, it’s not really about the confidence in you, it must be about the confidence and unity of what these communities with all their problems can show us. We see them as poor and undeveloped, but the longer I am here the more I wonder why. The strength, support and love that filter through every bone is something that has become a phenomena in ‘our’ world. They stand in church and life together, loving each other and walking through every day literally holding hands with the biggest smiles and kindest hearts that would make us stare open mouthed at home. If I take nothing else back, I hope that it can be an everyday reminder that a genuine laugh and a warm hand for a stranger goes further than our big houses, dramatic lives and alienation of each other.
Sarah