Church!

This morning Grandma woke us up at 7:15 and made us french toast and bacon for breakfast. It doesn't get better than that. At 8 we headed off to church to attend the discipleship class that Randy teaches. There were about 8 or 9 Kenyans in that class. Following that we went to the 9:30 english service that Randy preached at. Between the discipleship class and english service the boys tried to recruit us to their choir but we didn't end up doing that. We were introduced at the english service. The english service consists of...

• hymns led by Pastor Onismis
• announcements
• prayer
• english choir does 2 songs
• Swahili choir does traditional singing and dancing for 2 songs
• message preached by Randy
• hymns
• offering
• prayer

All of the singing usually goes for about 40 minuets or more and the sermon goes about 20-30 minuets--  Kenya isn't time oriented so they don't stick to a strict time schedule like churches in America. 

Next was the Swahili service that we went to with Maureen and Sharon. It consists of...

• hymns led by Pastor Onismis
• announcements
• prayer
• Swahili traditional choir
• another Swahili traditional choir
• message preached by Pastor Luke
• hymns
• offering
• prayer

Again, the singing lasts longer than the sermon. They introduced us in the Swahili service also. We didn't understand what they were saying and Maureen leaned over and told us to stand up. The building was packed and we definitely do not speak Swahili. So we stand up and the choir director says something in Swahili but also says "from Boise America" then he hands me the microphone--it was really funny to us that he said we were from Boise America so we just kinda laughed to ourselves. I had been practicing my Swahili throughout the school year with Mr Harrod- one of my professors that lived in Kitale,which is 30 miles away from Eldoret, for 6 years- but by no means do i speak Swahili. So I took the microphone and looked at all of the people, i smiled and said "Jambo, gina langu ne Brooke" (Hi, my name is Brooke) I most likely pronounced half of it wrong except for Jambo because when I spoke they laughed. Danika introduced herself just the same, and the laughed again. 

We sat through that service not really knowing what was going on but it was alright. The best part of the services was the traditional Swahili singing and dancing. It is awesome! THIS is the best example I could find on youtube of the traditional worship. It is more intense in person. 

After the service we went home and Maureen and Sharon came with us. Grandma fixed us a great lunch and we all ate together. Then we just hungout with Maureen and Sharon until about 4:30. 

When they left we helped Grandma clean the kitchen and do the dishes. 

Tomorrow morning Chris Liti- Lilian's brother- is coming to teach us our first Swahili lesson. Then we are going to work out our ministry plans and decide what we want to accomplish during this month that we are here. 

But for now we are going to go watch Grandma's pirated tv shows until bedtime.