Sunday Worship at Kidete

Today, Kip and I were at the Kidete Baptist Church, our "HOME" church in Tanzania. It was a great day. Kip preached, and I led in the Lord's Supper. The youth choir and women's choir sang. As always, the worship is enthusiastic, vibrant, powerful, and a beautiful expression of praise and thanksgiving to God.

The worship began with a time of singing praise and prayer led by Sadiki and Jessica. Stephen (staff member from DBL) played the keyboard--which was purchased through the Christmas Catalog. The singing and praying brought a real joy and a sense of unity in the worship that seemed, at times, to contradict the many expressions of worship. The youth choir sang a song and the women's choir sang two songs. One was a regular "praise and worship" type song and the other was a song in the native rhythm. The women did a great job. Neema has been writing some songs and today she, Jessica, Onesmo, Sadiki, and his wife sang one of them. The song was a blessing.

Two parts of the worship are always so meaningful: the offering and the prayer time. The offering baskets are placed at the front of the church and as the congregation sings praise, people go up and give their offerings. One particularly moving part was when one of the leaders brought part of her corn harvest as an offering. The prayer time is when anyone who desires prayer comes to the front and the leadership of the church lays hands on them and prays. For me, this is one of the highlights of the worship. Today, there was a man who came who has a problem with demons/witchcraft. Last week he came and stood outside the church. The leaders prayed for him. Today, he came in the church, and the leaders prayed for him. The church is confident that the man is growing in his desire to follow Jesus.

Kip preached from Matthew 7:13-14 on the broad and narrow way. He gave a clear presentation of the Gospel. I led in the Lord's Supper. Whether in the U.S., Romania, Kenya, Tanzania, wherever, the Lord's Supper/Communion/Eucharist always humbles and yet encourages me. I think that around the world since the day Jesus instituted the Supper, every believer has partaken of the Supper. Today, all around the world, millions of believers joined together in a common obedience to the command of Jesus: The Supper.

After the Lord's Supper, a special event took place. Some of the church members and others had gone together in buying soap and sandals for the children. You should have seen the faces of the children and the faces of those who had made the day possible.

A tradition at Kidete is that one by one, led by the preacher that day, the congregation leaves the church. As each person comes out, he shakes the hand of all who have gone out before him/her forming a huge circle of fellowship and praise. All this is done while singing songs of praise. This was a blessed time of worship.

This afternoon, the children went to one of their very favorite churches for worship. The New Life Fellowship is a strong, local supporter of the children. The worship is in the afternoon. People from all denominations come to worship together. The children enjoy going and insist on going on Sunday afternoons. The pictures above are on the DBLCH bus as they head for worship.