Superspiritual - Two church services in one morning

8:00 am
We started the morning with breakfast cooked by Andrew and Alex - Eggs Benedict! Alex makes the hollandaise from scratch and boy did we need a decent breakfast as we had a big day ahead of us.


9:00 am
Grace Academy church service. Once again the singing was wonderful. There was a touching moment when John took a photo of twelve children had their photos taken while holding bibles that a six year old Canadian boy had bought with his savings for them. Oh and we all laughed when the girl leading asked for people to come up and give their testimonies and Shane who is hard of hearing was heading towards the front. He was actually trying to find a seat up the front so he could hear better. We all burst out laughing.


10:00 am
After leaving Grace Academy service halfway through the sermon, we head to Elim Pentecostal. Sixteen men and me crowded into a mini bus. This is a church on the outskirts of a compound called which the Christians call Mapalo meaning ‘blessed’. The actual name of the compound means ‘cursed place’ because there was a mass murder in the compound somewhere a few years back. Phil and I were ushered up to the front pew where during the service we were almost accosted by Pastor Reno. He pointed at me and came really close glaring at me asking “Do you believe in Jesus Christ and that He has saved you?” That was no hassle for me to answer “Yes” I replied. Later in the sermon, the pastor was making a point that even though Jesus had never met Zacchaeus he knew his name. The pastor came and glared at Phil “Do you know my name?” He repeated it several times to a bewildered Phil who finally answered “Pastor”. Of course we hadn’t been introduced and there was no way of knowing his name was Reno.
 

We were on much friendlier terms later on in the service when we were all invited to the front along with any other newcomers. The whole congregation including children then proceeded to file past and shake all of our hands and greeting us. And that isn’t where the handshaking stopped…at the end of church you walk outside the building and proceed to shake hands with the line of people already outside. You then stand at the end of that line and shake hands with everyone else when they exit the building.

Once again a big morning with beautiful singing….Zambian style.