Worshiping the Lord in Africa!

One of the things that we looked forward to the most about coming to Africa was being a part of a church where we could experience African worship.  The total surrender, no holds barred, leave it all at the alter style of worship was such a draw to us.  We wanted to be a part of that and we have been blessed to see a small sampling of what we have to look forward to in the future.  For the past 4 Sundays we have visited Flood church here in Lilongwe.  Flood is a church that meets on the grounds of another church site.  It's a mission church of Flood Church in San Diego, CA.  It's a nice mixture of Malawian and ex-pats and that is a huge draw for us. We want to be among Malawians as much as possible.  To meet and create relationships with Malawian Christians is extra nice!  The service is in English and the pastor, Pastor Sean, is an ABC graduate from Malawi.  There is a great praise and worship band who plays everything from Hillsong, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin and combines that with traditional Chichewa choruses sung in Chichewa.  It's great and our family loves worshiping in such a free and worshipful way!

Here we are waiting for church to begin.  Since the site is shared with another church we have to wait for them to be done, allow our praise band time to set up and practice, and then we will begin our service.  They are hoping to build their own church one day.

Random chickens like to hang around by the church and listen to the praises to the Lord!!!

Flood Church and the congregation.

This is a typical broom that is used to sweep anything outside.  Driving around you will see many many people sweeping the dirt.  Not sure why, but the dirt is always clean!?

Sarah and the chickens....

This is the road leading to the Flood church.  The main road is in view and the church is to the left out of the picture.

Pastor Sean praying over the children as they leave for "children's church".  You can see CJ and SM in the center with their friend Sarah Rose in pig-tails.

-Please pray as we begin to settle in, find a place to serve the Lord and become a part of a church home.  We still have a couple of other churches that we will check out.

-Please pray as Jeremy has begun working full time at the clinic and is currently digging deep to get a year-end report out by tomorrow.  This all after being at work for only a week.

-Please pray for the children as they make new friends, adjust to new surroundings and new cultures, and as they prepare for school to begin.  This will be their first time in a traditional school setting since they've been homeschooled up until now.

-Please pray for me as I get my classroom set up, as I learn new curriculum and how to best teach it, and for the students who will be in my classroom.

More photos and prayer requests to come: check back soon!

Jill