"Let them praise his name with dancing.."

Psalm 149:3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp. 

African worship is joyful! Music amplified to almost deafening volume pours from large speakers, praise songs, clapping, dancing..it's all included. I told Kristy W. when she arrived that the Zumba classes we attend are good  practice for African worship! We were suppose to meet team I at this service but they had been re-routed thru South Africa due to the British Air strike and wouldn't arrive for another 12 hours.

African worship is not time constrained.. the second service is scheduled for 10...we arrived about 10:15 at our host, Paul's suggestion. It didn't officially start until 10 or 15 minutes later when the praise band took the platform lead the worship. We took seats in the back having been ushered to the front of the church the previous week and seated right in front of the speakers. Folks in their Sunday best, wandered in for at least another half hour filling the seats and joined in the raucous, jubilant praise. Once the praise band finished, the pastor and others begin speaking. The services typically go on for a couple hours complicated by the fact the services are conducted in both English and Lugandan and everything  is said repeated twice. No one seems to mind and the folks stay to the end!

The church we attended is pastored by Jimmy, one of the men mentored by Paul in The Next Generation Ministry. The building is a large open air structure. The floor is cement, there is a roof held up by wooden pillars and there are no walls. A raised platform in front gives the singers and pastors a place lead the worship. The seating is plastic molded lawn chairs of various colors, similar to what you'd buy a Walmart.

This Sunday, Lilly sang. We haven't told you much about Lilly in this blog. She and her husband are part of the Next Generation Family. She has written several songs that are very popular in Africa. She has an amazing voice. When she sang folks sang along. Of course we couldn't because she sung it in Lugandan. But the melody was beautiful and the spirit of the song clearly came thru.


I love the passionate, joyful , exuberant spirit of the African worship service, which expresses a  heartfelt thankfulness for all the Lord has done for us.