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Church
The church community merits it's own section of adventures

Saturday December 20 2003
Church Adventures

Split them up
I have settled into a small church here in Kpalimé. Interestingly enough, everybody seems to make a pretty big deal out of what particular type of church you attend, protestant, Baptist, Pentecostal, charismatic, whatever, they’re all here. The funny thing is that because there is a church called a "protestant" church here, they differentiate that from "Baptist" or "Pentecostal", even though Baptist is a subset of protestant. Anyway, so because of this I find myself telling people that I am a certain denomination more often than saying I'm Christian, which kind of twangs a nerve within me because I am Christian first, and I happen to fellowship within a particular denomination. I think one of the reasons for that may be is that, Christianity as a belief is often assumed in this region, thus is not which religion you belong to that differentiates you, but rather what denomination. I had gotten into the habit of being consciously ignorant of people's denomination because at university I was part of a multi-denominational Christian club, and making a big deal out of somebody's denominational affiliation made it too easy to put that person in a box. I would prefer to allow someone's Christian character to show through their love.

Sing Along
I digress. Back to the subject at hand, the church I attend here in Kpalimé probably has about 200 people attend on a Sunday, which is pretty much full. The first half hour of the service consists mostly of announcements (I think) and prayer and is done entirely in the local language of Ewe. As such I have gotten into the habit of arriving half an hour late! After that comes about a half hour of singing, sung solely to brass instruments, that are mostly out of tune, but that's OK. Out of all the songs that are sung, they will all be in Ewe except for maybe one. I try to sing along with the Ewe because the words are printed in a Hymnal, but some of the characters are different and I don't even know what sound they represent!

Of the maybe 5 French songs that I have sung since I got here, twice we have sung a song where the chorus goes something mostly like this (I don't remember the exact words):

Whiter than snow
Whiter than snow
The blood of Christ will clean me pure white
Whiter than snow

They sung this song the first Sunday that I was there, and I was totally stunned by it. I would think that possibility of misinterpreting this song in the context of Africa would be obvious, where all the people are black, white people are often synonymous with the cause of Africa's problems, at the same time being perceived as 'superior', and they have never seen snow in their life! The hymnal is partially in Ewe and partially in French, thus the hymnal was planted by missionaries. Yet, the songs to sing those Sundays were probably selected by Africans, so maybe I'm applying an overly-sensitive modern western politically correct perspective to it. White is often used to represent purity in the Bible (like white foufou which has to be worked and worked until it finally reaches what some people what call the ideal state of being fermented foufou), and I suppose you only need to know that snow exists to know that it is white. In any case, it's an interesting observation that is worth a bit of debate.

I don't know what you said preacher, but A-MEN
When the preacher speaks, he preaches in Ewe and then another person translates it into French. Most churches will just preach in Ewe. Even so, the translator’s voice is really deep, and in a large room without a microphone the consonants get lost a little bit, and I generally have quite a bit of difficulty translating and my mind wanders off. Usually if I can catch what passage they are focusing on that week and look it up I can do alright, or just sort of study that on my own in my seat.

One friend had an experience at a church that normally just preaches in Ewe. They had her sit up at the front of the church, and asked what her thoughts were on what had been preached. When she replied that she didn't really have any thoughts, the preacher re-iterated the entire thing in French!

Just being me...
After I had attended for 3 Sundays, one of the attendees there told me that my presence was really appreciated there, because normally a white will only come one Sunday, just to "Check Out" the African Church experience. Apparently me just showing up more than once, not necessarily even talking to anybody was really encouraging and unusual.

In any case, the people that I have met there are the types of people I am happy to stop and chat with for a little bit if I run across them on the street. You can't understand how nice this is.

Choirs
There are also two choirs, one regular choir (who sing WITHOUT a song sheet in front of them, thumbs up to them for that!), and the choir of blind students from the centre for the blind. Listening to the blind choir is reason enough to attend this church on Sunday, it is just so encouraging to see them succeed at something and do it well. There was one song that I knew (although the name of the song eludes me at the moment) that they did in Ewe, French and English.

Blind man stood by the road...
The other week, I met a blind man. (Well, I had already met him once, but we didn't talk much). I asked how he was, and he said things were very difficult, it was hard to come by enough money to live on, and I started to get a little worried about what would come next. What he asked me surprised me, he asked if I could teach him how to play guitar! I said yes of course, and the next Monday I gave him a little lesson. His aunt had given him the guitar as a gift, and often he will play it all day, but he doesn't really have a teacher, and doesn't have a clue about rhythm or music theory. His finger technique is quite good (mine is not) so I am going to try and teach him the basics of rhythms, scales and chord compositions so that he can better learn on his own. I think this is pretty exciting. He introduced me to another blind man who taught himself how to play piano and plays for some of the church groups! Just incredible. But even so, these people need teachers. They are so excited about music, because they know it is something they can do and excel at despite their blindness, and possibly even make a living. Some of them are amazing singers. I got to thinking that this would be an amazing missionary opportunity for somebody, to teach blind people music. It would give them something meaningful to work towards, their music would give glory to God, and it would even provide them with a way to make a living.

On to the weather...