First meeting of the volunteer church on the rocks

Some kids drawn to our worship music

I don't know if I have talked much about church at the village or in Singida.  I know I have mentioned Arusha Vineyard Church during my visits to Arusha.  To be honest, I have never liked going to the local churches in my area.  The first reason is obvious, my Swahili is not very good and the services are in the local language.  Again obviously (at least I hope it is obvious), that is my fault not theirs.  

Second reason is I get a strong internal focus from these churches in that everything I do understand is mostly about what they are doing for themselves with very little to nothing mentioned about community outreach.  Some of this may be to my not being fluent in Swahili but some of it has to do with my coming from a church that has a 50/50 focus at least with a full 50% of the focus on community outreach/service.  It is something that must be mentioned that I know not all churches are this way in Tanzania.  The Methodist churches in Morogoro do community service/outreach and I know William's wife Martha is involved in community outreach through her church in Arusha.  So there are Tanzania churches that do that, I just have not been able to stumble into one in my local area that gives me that feeling and I have visited a fair number in Singida and two in my village area (the two closest).   I also understand an internal focus is not a bad thing.  Church members need attention from ministry programs-that is a major function of church is to provide church members with a support community to learn, grow and help each other.  But what I have trouble with is a large church in a community with so many needs like people with disabilities and street children not having any programs to meet those needs.

The third is again not every church but more than a few of the medium and small churches seem to think I need constant attention and regular introductions to the congregation even when I attend multiple weeks in a row.  The large church did this part right, I was asked to stand during my first visit along with everyone who was on their first visit both foreigner and local.  At one medium size church I was introduced and asked to say something twice in one service, the second time being during a special collection for a new building they were funding.

The fourth is just the Methodist in me I think.  It is the dancing combined with the electric sound systems.  I appreciate lively music and always enjoy the interpretative dances our church has from time to time.  What bothers me is the dancing that features one or two repetitive moves that gets women up to come stuff money in the pockets of the male dancers.  Combine this with the constant desire to have electronics in their music to make things louder which I have never enjoyed and it is more show than worship or at least that is my feeling about it.  I would love to hear people sing more than the instruments that overpower them all too often.  I always think back to when God spoke to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-13 it was not in the noise of the wind, earthquake, or fire but in a gentle whisper.

So these are still mostly my problems I think.  I am a big believer if you are not happy with something then YOU should do something about it.  So the first step was to find a way to help with local needs, yes I am working in a village that provides medical services and pre-school to people who did not have access before.  Those are going on but I wanted to be more directly involved in things that are near and dear to my heart.  That leads me to finally getting to know more about Maria, a local woman who works for one of the mining companies and is friends with some of the Peace Corp volunteers I am friends with.  Last week I heard her mention something about starting something up to help street kids.  All the time I spent in Peru helping the Street Boys put that heavy on my heart so I have been talking this last week about how I can help her with that and I am very excited about the possibilities.  

The next was actual church service.  I had been thinking about starting something up in Singida for the Peace Corp Volunteers when they are in town.  I figured this may be a long shot since most are college aged and many are not believers in church (those that believe in a God but are not happy with churches). Then after Easter I saw a note from a fellow Methodist on facebook about missing going to church on Easter.  So she and I meet at the rocks by the lake and had our first church meeting today.  It was very nice, the temperature was cool, the lake was beautiful, some kids were interested in the music coming from the computer.  So I had downloaded some YouTube videos of hymns and contemporary Christian music with lyrics so we could sing along as well as Gareth's sermon from our church back in February about the Lost Sheep parable.  Add in a communal prayer needs and it was two people coming together to Worship a God we love.  When I am in town I will keep it going even if it is just me out there.

Sorry I horrible at selfies with my camera.  Jeanette and I at the first church on the rocks.

So please pray for our little church service and for Maria's program to help street kids.  Also please pray as one of my good friends here from the Peace Corp finishes up her service and returns to the States.  Today is her last day in the region.  I will miss getting to play Cribbage and Oxygin (which if you like scrabble please contact my mom and play this game with her) as well as venting sessions.