How Great Thou Art!

How big is God? Big enough so that I could enjoy singing this well known hymn while standing in the midst of people from about 20 different African countries! On Tuesday evenings I have started attending a Women of Virtue Bible study. However it is not just for women, men have started attending as well. There are people there from about 20 different countries. It is a time of singing, dancing (a favorite pastime of Africans), Bible study and prayer. It is really a good service.

Tonight we sang the very familiar hymn, How Great thou Art. As we sang it I was reminded of the times in America when we would have Sunday night hymn sings or times of singing favorite hymns and this one was almost always sung at these events. Then here I am across the ocean from America and I am singing it with many other nationalities.

I guess another way of saying it isn’t God’s world small?

If you will click on the link below, you'll be taken to Selah's website and be able to click an awesome recording of this song
http://www.selahonline.com/music.htm

Concurso?

Concurso…A word I will remember.

The other day a lady was talking to me and she was inviting me to something which her church was having. I listened and I said sure I’ll go. Well those are words which you have to be careful with when you are learning a new language and a new culture. I had followed most of what she was saying but I missed out on something. After I agreed to go I found out that concurso is a contest. The lady coordinating it thought it would be good to have someone from the USA, from Brazil, from Portugal and from Mozambique. The event was about four days after the day she asked me. The more I thought about it, the more I thought am I going to be a contestant. Will I have to sing? dance? draw? compete in the funny clothes contest? What will I have to do? I thought singing, dancing, and drawing are not talents of mine.

I kept saying God is sovereign, nothing catches him by surprise. He knew that I would say yes to this event and He has it under control. Each time times of apprehension would come up I would think that.

Then the Thursday morning of the concurso was here. I walked in the church for the event. Imagine my relief when I saw a room full of youth and a I found out that I was going to be a judge and not a contestant! What relief!

It was a good event. They had 10 or so different categories which the youth could compete in such as singing, dancing, crazy clothes contest, drawing, Bible questions and even arm wrestling! Each winner for the event won prizes. It was a lot of fun.

Easter Activities

Easter

Many people have asked what I did for Easter. Easter was very good.

The day started early. I went to an Easter sunrise service which started at 4:30 am. Why so early? Because the sun comes up early here and we wanted to see the sunrise. There were about 12 of us, we went and climbed a rock so that we would have a good view of the city and of the sunrise. Because of a little rain and clouds we weren’t able to see the sunrise. But it was still nice; we sang Easter hymns and read the Easter story.

Then we (the missionaries) had an Easter service. One of the families lives on a nice farm outside of town. So we had a service there and spent the day there complete with a covered dish lunch and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Oh and we had a really good volleyball game followed by a trip to the stream/small river for the kids to swim in. It was a good day.

It seems that Protestant churches here don’t celebrate a lot of the holidays. I haven’t quite figured out why. One missionary said it is because they don’t want to celebrate and have people confuse them with Catholics. It was interesting to me because one of the Mozambicans asked me if we celebrate Good Friday and Easter in the states. I said we do. He said why don’t we? I said good question. He is also very interested in getting more people involved in his church and he is wondering why the church attendance is so small. He has some good questions, some of the same questions which I’ve had myself.
His name is Choveke if you would like to pray for him.

Easter Activities for the Missionaries

This was taken today at the Easter celebration which we
(the missionaries) had. We had a service and then
covered dish lunch and then we played volleyball and
went to the river/stream. It was held at another
missionary's farm place, a really nice out in the
country place. It was fun...Carol

Easter Celebration in Nampula

This is the Easter sunrise service group. The sun rises
early here. We met at 4:15 am and got to the place at
about 4:30. It was a cloudy morning but we could still
see at least a break in the clouds for the sunrise.
Notice the moon behind them in this picture..We just
sang some Easter songs and read the Easter story. .Carol