Day 15: Dang We Suck

Weru Worship Centre

Choir practice!

Our first obligation for this fine Saturday was to help out with cleaning the church. One of the first things I notice is that some of the people at the church this morning were also just there for the kesha service. So they either a) only got a few hours of sleep or b) did not sleep at all. Now I knew we wouldn't have the luxury of vacuum cleaners but I thought that we would at least have mops or something. Wrong. Our cleaning equipment consisted of a towel and a bucket of water. So Dylan and I got down on the ground and started washing the church floor. Except that we were terrible at it. The three women also cleaning the church were so efficient and systematic; their backs were arched so much they were almost parallel to the floor and their hands were moving across the floor in a rhythmic, sweeping motions. Dylan and I were so terrible that we slowed down the women's progress to the point that we were eventually kindly told that we could just help move chairs.

For the whole time Dylan and I were at the church, I couldn't help but think: "Dang we suck." We Americans have it so good. Most of us almost never have to break our backs to do our jobs, much less offer to do so for the sake of the cleanliness of our churches. But here were these women whose entire lives involved physical work and manual labor. They didn't even have to be here helping serve the church but here they were just a few hours after ending the overnight prayer meeting, breaking their backs and cleaning. Dang we suck.

Later on that day, Dylan and I were asked to partake in the church choir's practice. We had already attended a practice two days earlier and were told to be at the practice at 3 PM. Dylan and I arrive at 3, and of course, there's no one there and the church isn't even open. You see, in Kenya, no one is ever on time. Their culture is a relational one meaning they aren't so keen on being efficient or productive. Kenyans would rather just hang out, talk about how things are going, and they'll be darned if a schedule gets in the way of seeing how your neighbor is doing. So Dylan and I almost spend the next 2 hours walking around, sharing our testimonies, and just getting to know each other better.

Finally, practice begins around 5. We practice some songs and learn some hand motions. The choir performs every Sunday during service, and so Dylan and I definitely did not want to embarrass ourselves in front of the whole congregation. After practice, we enter a time of prayer meeting.

So this was one of the hardest parts of being in Weru for both Dylan and me. Kenyans are very expressive and open about their faith. They are very passionate and it translates into how they worship God. A lot of times, when they pray, they are very repetitive and say things like "Oh Lord of Lords" and "Oh King of Glory." They also lift their hands, bow down, wail, cry out, come to tears, etc. And it's abnormal to pray for less than 20-ish minutes. To us American Christians, it was difficult not to judge them for being so wordy and emotional during their prayer meetings. I remember since this was our first time at a prayer meeting in Weru, I finished my prayer in about 5 minutes, looked up, and had no idea what to do for the next 15 minutes. I'll definitely talk more about this aspect of Kenyan Christianity later.

During this day, Dylan and I encountered a lot of Kenya culture and learned a lot. We saw their willingness to sacrifice for the Lord (both time and physical strength), to serve, to be passionate, and to be completely transparent in their faith. Initially, it was easy for me to have a "like this/don't like this" mentality about certain aspects of Kenyan culture. But as we learned earlier during our orientation week, sometimes, it's not right or wrong, it's just different.