Church Party

It started a few weeks ago with instructions after the service: men, women and youths were to get together into their separate groups immediately. While the children continued to play wherever they happened to be, Geoff and I were guided in the correct directions and we sat in our separate groups trying to understand what was going on. For me, the women’s meeting opened and I was aware of a lot of discussion about cows and the best place to buy one, followed by more discussion about different types of food (food words I have somehow picked up more easily than others).  My helpful friend explained that there was to be a big party in a few weeks’ time to celebrate the pre-school PEPE project supported by BMS, the anniversary of the church as well as a celebration for the Pastor. All in all, it was to be a big event. Then, as the women started putting their hands up and saying what they wanted to contribute, all I saw was a cultural minefield ahead of me… Fortunately, I was saved at the last moment as some women were now telling others what was needed and I duly volunteered to buy whatever they wanted me to. After some discussion and amusing miming to explain the word ‘flour’, I was all set.  I went out to discover that Geoff’s meeting had finished a while beforehand: the guys had done some maths, worked out what money everyone needed to contribute and that was that, they were done.

A few weeks later, our donations in, it was the day of the party. As it was a three-fold party, each aspect was celebrated in style including traditional Sena (local language) music from the choir, R&B from the youth, dancing and presentations from the children, short Bible messages and so on. At one point, we had a long queue to greet and congratulate Pastor (in which somehow we ended up in the youth section of). At another point in the service, Isaac also ended up in the wrong place, and found himself at the front of the church as part of PEPE. We’d like to say that no one noticed but I’m not sure that’s true!

The few working fans did little if nothing to alleviate the heat in the church as the sun warmed the tin-roof like an oven. Whilst the service was amazing, I must admit I was relieved to have the excuse of the children which allowed me to listen to a lot of it from outside. There, sitting with other mums where there was a gentle breeze now and then and I made the most of the opportunity to dive home and collect another couple of litres of water after we had ran out of the first lot.  Geoff braved the whole service in the church and is now claiming to be fully acclimatised to the Mozambican summer (40°C plus and 85% humidity). He was especially pleased with himself when the Mozambican next to him left claiming it was too hot!  When the four hour service was over we all crossed over the road for a spectacular lunch (in which there was no whole cow to be seen as was my original concern). I sensibly chose to sit outside with the women so that the children could run around whilst Geoff was absolutely delighted to be sat inside again. Fortunately, this was a much cooler building and he did get to sit on a chair and eat from a table.  We all enjoyed a delicious lunch and Geoff was even part of the cake cutting party because, as we then discovered, the day was also partly to celebrate international missionaries. Having had the cake cutting ceremony we decided to return home with some very happy but tired children. In fact, they were so tired that they didn’t even mind missing out on the enormous cake! We think that’s a first.