She is the Assistant Pastor at First Baptist and considers herself a "Wesleyan." Hers is a really neat story. When she was a girl, she lived in a village where an American couple were doing humanitarian outreach projects; they lived in a nearby town for a number of years. When in her village, the woman saw Veronique and called her over to ask her about school. At this time, Veronique had dropped out because her parents couldn't afford the school fees. The woman remarked on how intelligent she appeared and asked her to help out with the village project. Veronique did so and at the end of the time, the America woman (I'll call her Jane) went to talk to Veronique's parents about the school situation. V. had done really well while in school and so Jane offered to pay for the rest of her education. Being a Methodist, Jane wanted V. to go to a private Methodist school which meant she would have to board. So V. left her village and went to stay with the principal of the private school (there was no room for her to board) and she completed her education. She has since lost touch with Jane, but considers it an absolute miracle that she is well educated and an assistant pastor at a Baptist church. What happened to that "Wesleyan" foundation? Upon moving to Bo thirteen years ago, no-one was able to tell V. about a Methodist church, so she stumbled upon the Baptist one and has been there ever since. We both smiled upon discussing the reunion she and Jane will have one day in heaven. Surely God is SO involved in orchestrating our lives! V. has a special place in her heart for Americans and I feel sure she was somewhat responsible for giving me the chicken I received after service.
Back to service...Soon it was time to begin (10 a.m.) and I processed in with the other pastors. Since the church was celebrating Harvest Sunday, there were some visiting pastors - one of whom gave an astonishingly long (but good) prayer. The keyboard player was out (his album was being launched that evening - more about that upcoming) so we sang some songs and the opening hymn to drums. After some prayers, announcements and the scripture readings, I was up! I had been told to prepare a 20-25 minute sermon but had not been told there would be a translator (to translate into Krio). That was a new experience for me but I think it worked out fine. My delivery lacked in the flow and I think my carefully crafted parallel construction went by the wayside, but the essential message got through and I trust God's word went forth and will do its thing out there in people's hearts and minds. I felt led to talk about Jacob's dream of the open heaven from Genesis and the pre-eminence of Christ as laid out in Colossians - the point being that we will not experience the open heaven and walk in the supernatural without Christ being absolutely pre-eminent in our lives (note that Jacob says surely the Lord was in that place and he did not know it). I tried to make it "Africa relevant" by suggesting alternative gods like traditional ways, the witch doctor (who is consulted at a frighteningly high rate even by Bible-believing Christians), money or lack thereof, etc. which might be taking the place of Christ in one's life. I also mentioned Mt. Kilimanjaro as a great mountain but not the pre-eminent one (which would be Mt. Everest) - the idea being that Christ is the "Mt. Everest" against which all else is to be measured. I feel quite sure that there were no mountain climbers in the congregation, but I hope the point was made. When I had concluded (I got a little note from Rev. Koroma telling me to "summarize") we had a long offering session. The various auxiliaries got up and led songs while people put in their offerings. I ended up supporting the "Men's Fellowship" in addition to putting some leones in the general offering. About 5 offerings were taken. Then some of the harvest was brought in - hence, the chicken. Other offerings included sugar cane, bread, some rice and other goods. These offerings were blessed and would be distributed to pastors and others after the service (like me!). If you've missed pictures of my fine fowl, check her out (she laid an egg the day before she died) on the facebook link provided; she also appears in various stages of life on my Facebook profile page.
After all the offerings was some more prayer and then the closing hymn; I played the keyboard! Quite fun. We had a rousing rendition of "Take my Life and Let it Be" which fit very nicely with the sermon. After service, I was invited to become a full-time pastor and Rev. Koroma told me I was meant to be a preacher not a teacher. I'll need to think on that one....It was also suggested that I teach keyboard for the next two weeks to a couple of boys in the church. I then met my chicken (which promptly escaped from its tether and had to be captured by a young boy) and Fudia and I headed for home. Fudia tied the chicken to a stake and I prepared to head over to the CRC for book club and WASSCE tutoring (both of which I'll write about over the next week or so....).
Next up: the "launching" of a new album by the Gospel Pioneers (one of the members of which is the keyboardist from First Baptist). I have to explain that it took me FOREVER to figure out that we were going to a launching not a luncheon. I couldn't make out why a luncheon was happening at night. I asked and asked and asked and finally made out (after demanding someone to spell what they were saying) that we were talking about a LAUNCHING. Good. Once that was straight (which didn't happen until a day or two before the event), other details fell into place. It is in these kinds of situations that one understands the importance of context. Anyway, Fudia and I (she's my official wingman) headed out around 8 for the Bo Town Hall. I wish I had brought my camera; this scene was a classic! Picture a large concrete structure with overhead ceiling fans (only half of which are working), the loud hum of a generator, the hall containing benches and a bunch of plastic chairs (those are the "good" seats). In the back and in the entrance way are Coleman coolers with drinks and some grills set up for chicken, fried plantains, etc. Various individuals circulate through the crowd with plastic tie-dyed tubs of biscuits (cookies) and crackers atop their heads. Drinks are also being circulated - each with a serviette wrapped around it to wipe down the tab that one drinks from. By the way, I made a drink discovery: I do not care for non-alcoholic malt beverages. Malt belongs in a chocolate shake. Delish.
Imagine now the outfits. It was funny that on the way, I actually noticed a woman in a hot pink sequined gown standing in the doorway of a house and wondered why in the world she was dressed that way. Well, lo and behold, she showed up at the launching! All to say, there were some individuals who had gone all-out in some glitzy number - sequins, satin - all sort of bad bridesmaid-looking dresses. There were also plenty dressed in traditional African dress which, to me, is a beautiful sight. The bulk were dressed in jeans, tank tops, t-shirts, etc. - with various degrees of brand namery. Fudia managed to wrangle us some "good" seats which meant we were closer to the stage, under one of the fans which was high enough to do no good at all, and relatively near a window through which a breeze gusted (wrong word choice there - weakly attempted to come through is more accurate) every so often. Thank God for the little green hand fan she brought! We took turns with it. It was really fun to see a bunch of people I knew - I felt like an extra special token white person as they went by and yelled my name and shook hands. There were folks there from CRC and MTC (about half the kids came as well), First Baptist, Leader Church - and then some of Fudia's friends whom I've met.
The event got started with a group of comedians. Okay, first off, I have issues with comedy troupes/comedy clubs because I never think they're funny! It's just not my sense of humor. On top of that, these guys were speaking Mende so it was doubly not funny for me. Fudia thought it was amusing, however, so I laughed at her instead. Then the music began. Oh - I have to mention the sound system. I suppose technology is all relative, but imagine squeaky, over-amped microphones and the artists singing along to tracks. It seemed a weird combo of lip-synching and actual singing. "Deejay" was called upon to play "track 5", etc. There were about 6 different acts - all "gospel" music which here might be defined as a sort of reggae/praise song thing - where everyone's voice has been tweaked to sound sort of nasally and reggae/island electronic if that makes any sense at all. I'm lacking the words to describe the sound well except to say that it's actually quite similar to what I've heard in Jamaica. The lyrics are usually great - just solid and singable - "Jesus is your best friend; just call on Him" kind of stuff. Each has a reggae dance beat and invites one's best syncopated hip/arm/sway/step action. Each artist or group sang along to 2-3 tracks - all the while, people danced their way up to the stage to throw money in a box; sometimes they danced up on stage and tucked money in a pocket or slipped it in a sleeve. Sometimes, individuals stayed up on stage and danced for a bit with the singer then came down. For one brief moment I wondered how much of a scene it would cause if I did that. Wisely, I curbed the impulse.
One of the coolest acts of the night was a Lebanese guy who was more of a hip-hop artist than the others. He got up there and broke out with 2 back up dancers who were AWESOME! It was fun to watch them bend and fold like rubber-bands. The two boys wore matching plaid shorts but each wore an original striped shirt. He didn't get as much offering money because he's from farther away and I think not too many people in the crowd knew his music - but the dancing was a big hit! He came up on stage after we had heard a few songs by the launchers of the album - the Gospel Pioneers. They're quite popular and everyone was singing along. They had about 8 guys on stage wearing matching gold and black outfits. They did some formation dancing - like Michael Jackson video stuff - although one guy didn't know his routine well. Too bad, so sad. And really obvious. Embarrassing. Anyway, about 4 songs in, they all exited the stage. Apparently, the lead guy's wife died a few months ago quite suddenly of fever and he just kind of broke down while singing. Sad. I understand that they came back out around 12 to do some more songs. So, after a few more artists (a few of them blind), there was an incredibly long "pinning" ceremony where the Gospel Pioneers spokesperson thanked everyone he knew in the entire world and pinned some ribbon on his or her chest. If the person was not there, someone stood in and received the ribbon. Sierra Leonians are really big on recognition and an award of some kind for this, that or the other, so this thing was dragging on and on and on and on and on and you get the idea....
At this point, I hit the wall and was done. Time for bed after a long day! I found out it wrapped up quite soon after we left, so not really much was missed. I've been to my first African "lunch" and Rev. Gbenday (spiritual coordinator at CRC and one of the performers up there - a man of many talents!) has promised to make me or help me get a CD. I'd love to have a mixed one. Not many of these artists have CDs out as it's quite expensive to make one but they all have these track things - so we'll see what he can do and I've told him I intend to support the starving gospel artist. No worries there.
A great day with God!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111521&id=1367755334&l=383d2abff4
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