Church

We went to church this morning at the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Butha Buthe. The larger AFM in Lesotho has a Social Development Department that filters the majority of funding that comes from Bracelet of Hope (BoH). It is an interesting arrangement. BoH provides funds for programming and the primary costs of the foster homes and AFM hires the Social Worker and the foster parents. BoH also has a 'program director' here in country to communicate, advise, oversee, coordinate, advocate, and anything else that needs doing here. Basically it is a three headed monster, and based on my experience seeing it all happen the last 10 days, it is a fairly effective one. Obviously communicating from Guelph to Lesotho, including times differences, language barriers, and cultural norms, makes things difficult from time to time, however good work is being done. Lives are being changed. Hope is being experienced.

The church service was incredible. First of all, it was 4 hours long and apparently that is the norm. The music was amazing. Actually, the music was fairly average, just a drummer and a pianist, but the singing was amazing.  There were no less then 10 singers at any one time gathered around 3 mics, while 4 or 5 of them took turns singing solos or leading the congregation. The singing also inspired a ton of dancing, marching, laughing, shouting, hooting and hollering. I realize this is not a great picture but it is the best one I got, I guess I was too caught up in the celebration. By the time we got to the sermon we had already been there for 90 mins! It was an impassioned sermon based on a verse in Malachi and focused on the value of family, whether biological, spiritual, or social. Then there was another hour of singing and praying. It was exhausting. Also, today was the end their 'family week' and so there was a big lunch served after the service. Because we were considered special guests we sat with the pastor and his wife and were served first. Nice perk of being a foreigner here!