Church

So at some point in my life I felt the pull to be a minister. I won’t bore you with details, but my belief in the strength of the church universal and my hope for a role within the church has grown. It is with that growing sense that I have felt a desire to help with the church at Angel House. The church at Angel House is just that, a local church consisting of the staff and kids of Angel House. The kids provide the music and prayers with help from the staff and sometimes the missionaries. A different kid leads the service every week, letting everyone know when it is time to pray or sing, or that awkward time every week when it is time for me to preach, but I don’t realize it because the rest of the service is in Swahili. There is even an offering, though I still am not sure what is done with the money. There are kids that seem to get into it and get more out of it than others, as is typical anywhere, but regardless it is always a lively affair.

I think what strikes me every week is the simplicity of the service. There are multiple choirs based on the ages of the kids and they all sing, every week. Very rarely though do the kids need the song books since the songs are ingrained in their minds through repetition that has only enriched and not dulled the music of praising God. All the songs are accompanied by the percussion of water containers and sticks, which I will learn to play before I leave.

 

It is simplicity and purity in worship that is accompanied by a desire for the truth of God. My first sermon I ever preached at Angel House was bad. I don’t just say that to be modest, but I mean that my translator messed up most of what I said, and it was only five minutes long even translated. I just wasn’t used to any part of it; yet even with all the mishaps the kids loved it, because it contained a statement or two of God’s truth. They desire God’s truth in worship, in prayer, and in Word in a way that only comes about when the distractions of the world are put aside. I do not want to portray perfect kids, because they aren’t, but they hunger for the mystery of life that only God holds, in a way I have not seen many other places.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.