Sunday, March 6- Church, Funeral, Church and a little love for the Jayhawks!

Well I have just returned from my second church service (and third overall service) of the day which pretty much guarantees that I will be in some degree of pain for the remainder of the night.  I miss my church SO much.  And not just for the comfy pews and English services, although those are a big part of it.  But I miss the depth of the messages (kudos, dad) and the amazing worship times where you can just feel the Spirit being welcomed into our congregation.  More than anything I miss the overwhelming love I feel the moment I step inside the building.  The community of NBBC is so wonderful and loving and if you are a part of that I want to go ahead and say THANK YOU for the love and the fellowship that I have grown so accustomed to and that I miss so greatly.  I certainly get plenty of attention and "love" at the church here; but it's far from the same.  People fight over getting to shake my hand and stare at me as I sing as if I'm the only one singing (and sometime I am if the staring takes over their minds and the stop mid-word, mid-song, mouth agape.) At this point I just want to be like, "Guys, I've been here for 5 weeks.  Take a picture and move on."  I restrain myself however and go back to reading the Bible or journaling while Pastor Roy preaches very quietly and a litany of other things take place in the congregation.  People eat, sleep, check their kids for lice, draw, throw things at roosters (woot), talk, laugh etc.  It just doesn't feel reverent.  And the weird thing is that the few who are paying close attention never seem bothered at all by the ruckus occurring amongst them.  I don't even understand the service, yet I spend the better part of it shushing, hushing and telling kids to sit down.  I do enjoy the worship time, but you'd be hard pressed to find a time to sing that I'd not enjoy.  This one is difficult to participate in however because bless Jiji's heart, she is just not gifted with rhythm.  Her voice is pleasant enough and I can't imagine leading the congregation (of about 70) alone with just a microphone and a keyboardist.  She does her best and it is always earnest and beautiful, and her brother on the piano deserves props for switching tempos and spacing every time she does.  Jiji has asked, well informed me, that I'll sing sometime, but I really don't know how helpful that would be.  I make enough of a fuss by just sitting silently in the pew.  But if she persists, I can't say no to her.  She is by far my closest friend here and if you saw her, you'd understand how you could just never disappoint her.
As soon as the service ended I headed for the jeep bus thing as we all normally do, but before I took two steps out of the hut Jiji walked up next to me and said, "You may be surprised." I got a little scared at that because I am surprised a lot here and rarely have any warning.  I asked why she thought that and she replied, "I think you are not used to a funeral service here."  I didn't understand why she was telling me that and then I looked behind her and saw a station wagon pulling up with a coffin in the back of it and two semi-truck sized carts stacked with people park behind it.  I laughed and said, "Well, yeah, I'm surprised." I sometimes wonder why they don't just tell me things before they happen.  This was not sprung on them and I know this because after talking with Jiji a little more, I realize this is the same funeral that she told me was happening about 4 nights ago.  It turns out that funerals are a week long over here.  Yikes.  I know they've been meeting at Roy and Jiji's house so I guess this was the official service.  It was just as long and as far as I could tell a very similar topic to the first service.  We all stayed but cleared out of the hut to make room for the guest and sat at the back.  Seeing the sun was out and beating down I decided I get a prime position for tanning.  I spent the rest of the time sitting in my chair in the sun trying not to fall asleep.  That got easier when Jessa and Brindy came over to try and argue with me about the dangers of the sun and why I shouldn't try to get tanned.  Ugh, that garbage has made it over here, too! It was funny especially considering that this country runs completely on people who spend their lives in the sun.  When the service was done Tatay graciously suggested I go home with the elementary kids rather than go to the graveyard which could "take some time." I agreed and about ten high schoolers also jumped on the offer making our total number of people in the 15-seater van, 23.  (OH! I forgot... we got a flat tire on the way to church.  We didn't have the spare so they piled three speakers, a keyboard, all the wires and stands and Richard on to one motor-tryc and I got on the second with two other house parents, five high schoolers and baby Bob.  I don't even know what horrors happened after that.)
After we got home and ate I went to nap and instead read 172 pages of The Hunger Games (Ashlee-- GREAT suggestion).  Rain appeared suddenly and hammered down on the tin roof and when it is so loud I feel like I am losing my mind.  I just covered my ears with my pillow and read and didn't move for about four hours.  The only thing that made me put the book down was the dinner bell ringing more than an hour early.  When I got there they all said I was late and needed to eat fast so we could go to evening service.  Again... just tell me these things! :)

At our night service the kids performed "Thank You Father For Making Me, ME!" which I got to help them with this weekend.  It was very cute and I have a video that will not upload on this internet strength but I'll get a few pictures up because they were representing tonight. They all wanted to look uniform and the only shirts that they all had were of the KANSAS JAYHAWKS. A quick peak on facebook confirmed that they are once again pulling ahead in the March Madness world that I am so sad to miss out on.  Let's hope they do better than last year (when they lost me $10!) Rock, Chalk, JAYHAWK!

Well it is nearly 9:00pm and I am spent.  If you think of it please pray for the kids, especially the 4th year high school students.  The next two days they have all of their final exams and they have all been working so diligently.  ALSO, if you haven't read my blog regarding college fees for next year please do.  If you have read it please keep that option to give in your thoughts and prayers.  Many of these students are fighting for the very top positions in their class and they all deserve to continue their education.  It is a small price for us and would change a life, no doubt, over here.

Okay. That's all. Tata!

-Bekah

This is dedicated to the NBBC congregation. Love you all! I'll be home soon!!

Angel and Alvin!

Mary Lyn and Keyce

Our flat tire

The Funeral station wagon.