letter from South
Anyone who has been to Africa or even visited an African-heavy congregation will know that worship is a lot different than your average Sunday morning.
Where I currently serve (Dihlabeng Church, South Africa), joyous praise and worship is central to who we are. We worship on a Sunday in up to five languages and often dance our way through songs - see the photo!
Becca (my wife) and I came back to the UK for six weeks over Christmas, and were very much looking forward to being in our home church to see friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. The first chord rang out of Crown Him with Many Crowns and we instinctively started the ‘African sway’ but couldn’t quite get back into the rhythm of Western worship! It was strange being back in that atmosphere of worship after nearly a year and a half away. It was just so different to what we had become accustomed to.
There is an elderly lady at our church called Mme Gracie (Mme is the local term for mother – pronounced ‘mmeh’) and she is the most active worshipper in our congregation (she is the lady in the red dress dancing in the photo). When we first arrived, we discovered her adult son had just been reported missing. Unfortunately, in this part of the world, there are normally only a few outcomes: he had found a job somewhere else in the country and had moved away without telling anyone (this happens more often than you would think); he was in an extended drunken state and was not yet compos mentis; or he had been seriously injured and was in hospital.
Unfortunately, he was missing for over a year before he was found dead in the local dam when the level had drastically fallen. However, despite all this, Mme Gracie worshipped God all the same, knowing that her life was in the safe hands of Jesus and no matter what life threw at her, she could rest in His loving arms. So, every week when I see Mme Gracie dancing in joy and worship of the Lord for what He has done for her, it makes me appreciate what I have and what God has done for me that little bit more.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love worshipping God. Whether it is in English, Sesotho (the local language), Zulu, Xhosa, or any other language. However, there is something special about the way that worship is expressed in certain places in the world; and Africa certainly is one of them.
