Church in Zambia

I was in Zambia for just under a month, so I had the opportunity to attend three different churches while I was there.

The first weekend I was in Kitwe and Byron, Diane and I attended Ma Towela's Church. It was a traditional African church called 'Breakthrough Believers.' The service was much different from the churches I had attended in South Africa. The choir was all wearing matching black and purple outfits. The dancing was much more energetic. The service lasted about three and a half hours in total. It was a different experience, but I was very glad I went.

The second weekend, Palm Sunday, I was in Kachele with Adam, Dave, and Russell. We went into Ndola with Liz and Westen for church at the Ndola Christian Fellowship, a more traditional English service. It was about an hour and a half, but it was a nice mix of worship and preaching. The scripture readings were Mark 11 and 1 Corinthians 13; the sermon focused on the theme "love always perseveres." After everything I've experienced here, it was definitely the right message at the right time. This service was probably the most 'home'-like for me, which was really nice as well.

The third weekend, Easter Sunday, I was back in Kitwe. Mirriam and Mercy invited me to go to church with them. Byron and Diane were watching their home churches podcast online, so I decided to take the girls up on their offer. I woke up and was dressed and ready to go by 7:45. Mirriam said we would by leaving by 8AM. I waited and nothing happened so I wondered if they had left without me and I went back to my room. At 9:30AM there was a knock on my door; the girls had overslept! So we quickly got ready to go and got a taxi. Church had begun at 9:00AM; we got to church at 10:30. Despite going so late, we were still there until 1:30PM: the service lasted 4.5 hours! It was amazing though! This was a Pentecostal Assembly of God Church and it was HUGE!!! I tried to do a quick count of the number of rows and how many chairs were in each row. I would guess there were over 500 people in attendance, but it easily could have been 700+. It was the largest church sanctuary I have been in, with the exception of possibly The National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

I was the only white person in the entire congregation. Mirriam had introduced me to one of the greeters on the way in, so the pastor knew I was American. The first two hours of service were worship, so the announcements didn't occur until we got there. They asked all the visitors to stand, which is normal in any African church. Then the visitors all sat down, but they asked me to remain standing and the pastor spoke in Bemba. I know it was about me, probably something along the lines of how I chose to spend my Easter celebrating with them. Even if the white population still has underlying racist views, the black population is so welcoming and considers it a great honor when white people choose to spend time with them.

The service flew by! It honestly did not feel like three hours! Some songs were sung in Bemba while others were sung in English. The sermon was spoken in English but translated into Bemba, so for most of the service I was able to know what was going on. After the service was over, everyone wanted to meet me and greet me. I met with the Pastor and his wife and they prayed for me. It was definitely a memorable Easter in Africa!