Andrea:
Today we went to church for the first time. There is a Church of
Central Africa Presbyterian congregation here, which our friends the
Maliros attend and which has an 8 a.m. service in English. The
bulletin (“brochure”, more properly) read: Welcome to Bunda CCAP
Nkhoma Synod, “The Bakery of Heavenly Bound Souls.” After that
we weren't sure what to expect but as it turned out, the general
outlines of the service were not too different from a mainline
service in the US. It was punctuated by lots of singing: scripture,
Apostle's Creed, offering were all followed by a song, and two choirs
sang. We knew all the hymns – which were sung a capella, in
amazing harmonies. The kids especially had a bit of trouble
following the sermon because of the speaker's Chichewa accent, and
the lack of amplification meant outside noises sometimes drowned it
out. During announcement time we as visitors, along with a Malawian
who was there for the first time, were invited to come forward and be
welcomed, and say a few words of greeting to the church. They
responded with a beautiful song in Chichewa. We found out they have
Sunday school for kids – at 6:30 a.m. Joel and Emma were a little
alarmed, but very relieved to find that it's done in Chichewa so
there's no point in them rolling out early for that! Apparently the
English service is heavily attended by college students and faculty.
It's followed by a Chichewa service which we didn't stay for. There
were no backs on the benches, and no screens on the open windows so
little golden leaves occasionally drifted in with the breeze. All in
all, these heavenly-bound souls felt warmed but not excessively baked
as we worked our way through crowds of students on the dusty road
toward home. (The excessively-baked part came when I decided to go
for a jog before lunch...6 a.m. is much cooler for that sort of
thing.)
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