I did not realize when I woke up early this morning refreshed and ready to go that this would be one of the longest days of my life. Not one of those melodramatic Everything-Is-Going-Wrong longest days, instead an If-This-Lasts-Another-Minute-I-Will-Go-Crazy longest days.
My internal alarm clock woke me up before the one sitting on my nightstand so I took the opportunity to enjoy a slow breakfast, a bucket bath, and two chapters from Three Cups of Tea. I am used to rushing around on Sunday mornings in Fresno (and I guess at Camp, too) so it was nice to take my time before putting on my Nigerian church clothes and walking down to meet up with Jon and Kristen. The three of us walked down the street to Latter Glory Church, an hour into a service that was still going strong with music and dancing, and took our seats. We enjoyed the time of joyful praise that led into the Pastor’s message on God being our fortress. He spent a lot of time in the Psalms, going over how we as humans will never know or feel true security until we put our trust in the Lord. He related our struggle with feeling insecure without Christ with the world’s attempts to create manmade security for protection. “Why do our countries spend so much money on creating weapons and tightening surveillance on each other and neglect our duty to the people who are more worried about getting food on their table?” I’m going to have to chew on that one for a while. After a great talk that resonated well with everyone in the room the three oyibos thought things were over for the service. Next thing we knew Jon and Kristen were being called on-stage to announce that it was their final Sunday in Nigeria and take the time to thank and pray for them. It was a nice send-off for the couple who has worshipped here their whole three-month stay in Jos. Communion was wheeled out to the front of the room, which we all took part in, and I realized it was already 12:15, a little past the normal schedule. The pastor walked back onto the stage for what I presumed was the closing prayer, but it turned out to be his speech regarding an honorary doctorate he just received.
*Side Note: Honorary doctorate? This man went away for a couple weeks to Lagos to a university there and was given the title of “Doctor Reverand” for some reason I could not quite pick up on. He went on and on about how proud he was to have worked so hard for this, but in truth he did nothing except pay a little cash to attend a short class. Apparently this happens quite a bit here and, as Ben has told me, leads to the problem of ill-equipped pastors leading congregations with twisted doctrine.
He brought his certificate and plaque to church with him and asked Dr. Simon (a true grad-school hard-working psychologist) to present it to him. Once it was all read the place erupted and we had a massive dance party to congratulate the new “Doctor” on his title. I must admit the dancing was fun, but everyone was expected at some point during this celebration to go up to the front and slip some naira into a basket the pastor was holding. I was ushered forward and shook his hand since I had already given my offering (but if I had any money I don’t think that would be the wisest choice)...hopefully not the most offensive moment of his day! By this point it was 12:45 and a man was called forward to share a song. He gave a short testimony and sang, followed by the Pastor telling the congregation that he believed Jon and Kristen would be this man’s passage into America. Good Lord your service is getting crazier. A few more songs, a closing prayer, and a mandatory time of refreshments to celebrate the pastor’s achievements. I staggered out of Church at 1:27.
Walking back to the flat I hoped that the rest of the day would go smoother than this morning. A quick lunch remedied my lethargic mood and I had a few minutes to finish Three Cups of Tea (it was fabulous!) before heading to Support Group meeting. Jon and Kristen were supposed to be sharing this afternoon and I was excited to hear what they had to say. Biana, Adrie, and I ran into Sally Barlow, the US coordinator who helped get us all here, at the Clinic. She is on a short trip to Jos meeting up with her partner Pam, whom I have gotten to spend some time with over the past few weeks. They are both lovely women. Sally was also asked to speak at Support Group so she started off the session teaching us all some useful stretches for people who’s bodies are not as strong as they used to be. Once she was done and the singing and announcements were completed, Team D only had five minutes to talk before we ran to our next outing. They gave a short spiel on what their trip looked like before we ran to Greg and the van to take us to our final event of the night.
The African Godly Mothers is a group of Nigerian women who are working on strengthening and empowering females across the country to share the love of God effectively and spread the Gospel. Pastor Ben is connected with their organization and invited the five of us to one of their seasonal banquets. We got there just after 4:00 and were seated right away. The program began a little late but the small room was filled when it started. The first part of the night consisted of some short testimonies (Biana got the chance to speak on having a mission-mindset), a time of intercessory prayer, and a jellof rice dinner while they ran a short documentary on Bible translation in Northern Kaduna State. Pastor Ben got up to speak/scream and went on for a good hour about spoken prophecies from world prayer meetings over the past few years saying Nigeria has been chosen by God as the true place to send out the Gospel. It was really bizarre and my ears hurt from his constant yelling into the microphone. I was definitely feeling the itch to leave once he was done at 6:30 but gave up all hope when he handed the microphone to another man sitting at the head table. I started praying that no one else would be given permission to speak after this man and another woman took up 45 minutes sharing stories completely unrelated to the banquet’s purpose. There was then a cake-cutting, award giving, more prayer, more thanking of people,...I was actually going crazy. I could not keep my feet still and the four others around the table were either zoning out into space or trying hard not to make the person sitting next to them laugh by rolling their eyes. We finally got in the van to head home at 8:20. I was ready to run a marathon.
Back at the flat I made a promise not to do much in particular but was reminded by Jon and Kristen that tomorrow morning is my first time to lead Discipleship Class. God, keep me awake to get ready tonight. And please don’t allow me to speak for too long or scream at the women I am discussing with tomorrow. Because as much as I love the pastors here, I don’t want to preach like them.
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