Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow!

This will be my last blog journal from Zambia!  Can’t believe where the days went!  I am so glad our last day here was a Sunday.  How blessed to be able to worship one more time here in Zambia!

We walked to the El Shadai Church this morning, just a 10 minute walk through Kalingalinga compound.  El Shadai meets in the Jesus Army School, room 2.  It was a room about 10 x 15 and it had a black board at one end and a piece of lace fabric hanging on the wall at the opposite end.  There were crude desks, one narrow board to sit on, and a board about 12” wide for the desk top.  There was room for two adults on one bench. There are three rows of these desks across the room, with two narrow aisles between them, and the outside desks touching the walls.

Stephanie and I were given a desk across from the Pastor, seats of honor once again.  Everyone sat facing the wall with the fabric and a small table with a tapestry covering over it.  This is where the pastor stood.  His bench and ours faced each other across the short side of the room, so everyone could see us and we could look at all of them.  It was a very small church, very few women, several children, and lots of men.  Emely one of our GEMS counselors is the club coordinator there and her husband is the pastor.

Things I love about worship in Zambia, services are on Africa time and not by the clock.  The Sunday school lesson started about 9:30 and people filed in until well after 10:30.  The formality of what you can and can’t do doesn’t exist here.  If you need an announcement made you just walk up and tell the pastor or the announcement elder.  If you want to sing a song, you just tell the praise and worship leader and they will sing it.  While the Pastor is preaching, small children are walking around, going behind him, to get to the other side of the room.  A small child stands at this mother’s feet as she sings on the praise team, when he tires of standing there he walks around and checks out all the other children.  There doesn’t seem to be a feeling of you have to do this, or that you can’t do that.  It is all about worship and that is all that matters.

The service began with a teaching time, followed by intercession and then praise and worship.  There were no instruments, just beautiful harmonic voices and hand clapping several different rhythms.  There were the clap on the offbeat, and then the double clap between beats and sometimes a double, triple clap.  We sang and danced, they liked it that we did not just stand there.  The man leading the praise and worship kept watching us, to see if we were moving.

The pastor brought the message in English, he had a good voice and his interrupter translated to the native language.  Following the message, they have a testimony time, and one by one they come and sing a song, some come up and ask for others to come and join them singing.  The pastor and his wife sing a couple of songs, and then another young woman comes and sings.  They ask if I will come and greet them, and I bring them greetings from GEMS and share a scripture with them.  I thank Emely and the congregation for the support of the GEMS club. 

Then it is time for the offering, a young girl stands and holds a basket, and people file up and drop the money in.  It is brought back to the elder who counts it, and then he stands and says that he doesn’t usually announce the amount, but wants to share today, because of the generosity of the visitor’s!  I guess it was the larger bills that gave us away.

Then it is announcement time, and then we are asked to stand one more time, and they clap three times and sing for us, welcoming us to their service.  The pastor dismisses us, and we are led out and each person comes out and shakes our hand.  One of the first little people, who came out, shook my hand and wouldn’t let go.  His name was Donnie and he was 5, he just clung to me, as the others passed by and shook my hand!  He hangs on until we start off, down the road for home.

How blest I was to be able to worship four Sundays here in Lusaka!  Each one different, but each one touched my heart, and gave me new eyes to see what worship in heaven will be like!  Each week, there was some hesitancy on my part, as what to expect, and each week God just took those feelings and blessed me beyond anything I could have imagined!  True worship in any language changes the heart!

Now as I sit here and the rain pours down outside, I am thankful, that we were able to have lunch and get back before the rains began.  When it rains in Zambia it pours, like buckets coming from the sky!  There is something soothing about hearing the rain come down, and knowing that this is my last afternoon here.  A reminder of how God’s blessings have poured down on me while I have been here.  In huge buckets from God!

God has blessed me and He has changed me, by allowing me to come to Zambia and share GEMS.  I am so thankful that God chose to use me here in Zambia.  When I think of all the wonderful relationships that I have made, I can’t imagine not knowing and loving these women.  It was wonderful spending time really getting to know the women, hearing their stories and sharing in their struggles, praying with them and for them. With each knock at the gate, and the greeting of one of our dear friends comes out to say good-bye and wish us traveling mercies, I am just overwhelmed! Wow, God is so good!  Does life get any better than this?  Only in heaven, only in heaven!

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen