Jeremy preaches at Rainbow

We are blessed to attend a traditional Malawian church that is associated with Rainbow CDC/ orphanage.  The church is called Rainbow Community Church.  The pastor is an ABC graduate and he has asked Jeremy to preach a few times over the last three months.  These are photos of last Sunday's service at Rainbow.  

The younger Rainbow kids shared a couple of songs at the beginning of the service.  

This is the ladies choir.  They share a few songs each Sunday morning.  The great thing is they start singing sitting in their seats in the congregation.  Then they slowly rise and start marching/dancing towards the front all while singing.  Then when they are all in place they start their next couple of songs.  There is no music except an African drum that one of the kids plays from his seat in the back.  The ladies sing acapella and they keep rhythm with their dancing/movements.  Each song has a slightly different dance that goes with it.  They are amazing!

And speaking of amazing....here is the Rainbow praise team!  These are some of the older Rainbow kids and a couple of staff members.  They lead our worship and choruses each Sunday.  They are simply amazing. And as you can see they sing directly from the heart, lifting their voices to our Lord in a glorious song!  

Prayer time

The sermon this Sunday was delivered by Jeremy and Pastor Nasson (he is the head pastor and an ABC graduate) translated the sermon into Chichewa.  When Jeremy is not preaching Pastor Nasson still delivers the sermon in English (for our family) and Martin (a current ABC student and the girls house parent) translates into Chichewa.  

We have a great church where there is much work to do and many opportunities for spreading the Word!  Praise God!

Seven Words of Worship

I was going to bed early tonight, but I decided to read a little before I went to sleep. I picked up a new book that Jeremy had lying on the shelf. It's called, "Seven Words of Worship: the Key to a lifetime of Experiencing God". The book is written by Mike Harland and Stan Moser. I'm not familiar with either man nor am I familiar with the book. I'm not sure why I even picked it up except that God wanted to give me a blessing tonight. He is so wonderful like that! So I'm going to share some things with you that I learned about worshiping our Lord. It's pretty safe to assume that everything else you read is straight from the book. :)

Psalm 139:7-8 says, “Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.”

The men then go on to define worship as this: “Worship is our response to God’s revelation of who He is and what He has done.”

“God has gone to great lengths to reveal himself throughout history-including sending His Son, Jesus, into the world- and He continues to reveal Himself today in at least three ways:
1) God reveals Himself in creation.
2) God reveals Himself through His Word.
3) God reveals Himself through the Holy Spirit.

“As we focus our time and attention on the Lord in worship, proclaim His place of honor in our lives, and thank and praise Him for His eternal promises, we can expect God to intervene in our circumstances. God has promised to inhabit our worship, and He will. And when the King is present, all things are possible! “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good, and His love is eternal; His faithfulness endures through all generations.” (Ps. 100:4-5)

“That’s why we must worship through the good times and the bad-when we’re waiting for God’s merciful touch in our circumstances and when we’re standing in awe of His power at work around us. Worship invites God’s presence, enabling us to experience God.”

“God has plenty of everything-except you! And your worship is the time when you open up yourself and pour out on the One who loves you more than anyone else. So, don’t always be consumed with what you GET in worship. Think about what you GIVE! God wants worship from YOU. No one else can give that to Him.”

O.k. now that's amazing to me. God needs and wants me?? Little old me?? Wow! And to think that I can give God something that noone else in the world can give Him. That's awesome! I am so excited about my growing worship to our Lord. I know that I'll never be able to worship Him the way He deserves, He's too magnificent for that. But I will be praying about and learning all that I can on ways that I can truly worship my Father and thank Him for those many many blessings!

Jill