Worship in Zambia

It was a sunny, beautiful, winter, Sunday morning in Zambia.  We worshiped with 250 Zambian children and around 50 Zambian adults while overlooking a valley in Lusaka.  Children and adults were alternating in the seats.  The worship leaders included around 50 children singing their hearts out in Nyanja and in English.  People danced along with the drums and the joyful singing.  I sat beside a young boy named John (around age 12) who followed along in the Bible readings (1 Peter 2 and Exodus 19) with me while drawing a picture and writing a note for me.  It said, "I love you so, so, much.  God bless you for what you are doing."  He  stared at Oliphint family photos inside my Bible and asked if he could keep one of them.  He taught me to say "I love you very much", "How are you?" "fine"  and "thank you" in Nyanja.  He had the most pleasant and loving way about him like a real gentleman. He will surely be a future leader in Zambia thanks to the grace of God through the ministy of Family Legacy and his home at the Tree of Life Village.  Two children gave testimonies and I shook in my seat in tears.  A 15 year old girl shared a horrific story of being raped by her cousin at age 8.  Her mother fed her beer instead of food and she became a drunk by the age of 9.  When she told her Mom about being raped, she told her not to tell anyone beacuse her cousin would have to go to prison.  She went on to describe going to church with her grandmother and crying out to God to rescue her.   Through the tears, she explained that God is her father, that He has restored her and made her a virgin again.  She finds her strength, hope and joy in Him.  Finally, she told how she hopes her story will minister to other children in the room.  EVERY single child at Tree of Life has an equally dark story.  A little girl next to me sobbed as she listened.  I squeezed her and held on tight.  The service ended with one of the best sermons I have ever heard.  (No offense, Kyle!)   My favorite line was, "When people see you, do they see God?"  He was not very gentle with the state of the church today.  He said when people enter churches, it is trashy, all about the minister, what clothes you wear, how comfortable the pew is and what car you drive.  He said, "What you love and what you are fed is what you are."  "Garbage in garbage out!"  He challenged us to sit under solid preaching of the gospel.  "When you are sick, you lose your appetite.  When you are spiritually sick, you lose your appetite for God."  He pointed out that Americans will spend 3-4 hour watching the Super Bowl, but will get mad if the preacher goes over 30 minutes.  Ouch!!  It was a solid feeding of God's word and a beautiful picture of God's people (all races) joining together to worship the Lord.  I would move to Zambia tomorrow for such a glorious opportunity to do that weekly.  Thankfully, we will worship there next week and will have the same minister.  I will be perfecting my dance moves with the African worship songs.  My feet stumbled awkwardly today as I followed along with the children beside me.  After the service, we enjoyed a delicious meal on the terrace of a cliff.  It was such a lovely and satisfying Lord's Day in Zambia.  Even as I type this, my own family has not even begun to worship in the states.  I hope that it is an equally glorifying and wonderful time of worship.