Ruben bloggar frå turar, innland og utland: Church service

I filmed a bit during church yesterday. Have a look!

Sunday 24/11-2013

It’s only 5(4) days until I fly off to Cape Town for a week holiday and then an oral exam, so I felt I had to go to church service today (I've been going 5-7 times since I came here in mid-August). The plan was to go to the gym, and then get picked up, but my host dad had been invited to a different church to preach. Since it was far away, and it started earlier than normal I had to choose between gym or church, and I decided to go to church, for my families sake.

Preacher and singing

When we arrived at the slightly bigger “church” around 9 AM we met the priest and the other pastors. I and my siblings took our seats on the second row. It started with the pastor giving a preach about praying and pray even if things go well, not only when we need something. After about 45-60 minutes some ladies started to sing. Here, the women are very good singers (men as well), and I had no problem listening to the choir for an hour, but it was the end that caught my attention. Because it started easy, and the women were dancing a bit and it was all good, then one of the pastors came up and danced a bit and when I had walked back to his seat some other guys came and danced. I had one thought in my head: “Don’t make me come up and dance! Don’t make me come up and dance!”, so when the pastor gave me a nod to come and join, I kindly refused by smiling and shaking my head.

More intense

Then slowly it got more intense, and the women were singing louder and louder with more passion than before, and occasionally the lead singer went down on her knees. Then, when the singer remained on the floor, more and more people joined her, kneeling down. One was kneeling down with his forehead on his chair, another one with his head between his knees, rocking back and forth. I am not a religious man, so I wasn’t sure what to do, so I pulled my camera up and filmed a few seconds of it, I wasn’t worried to be looked at, because everyone had their eyes closed. I had a quick look behind me, and the majority of the people behind me were deeply in their prayers. Then while the choir was singing, the lead woman, who was kneeling in front, started praying loud and fast. I recognized the prayer from earlier, and it’s so quick I can’t pick up the words. It was all building up to a grand finale, an orgasm, a highlight, I don’t know how to explain it. It was just so tense!

Respect and a scary blessing/prayer

Then, after the big moment when everyone was shouting and singing/praying it slowly quiet down, and it was relaxed, with some of the girls singing. Then it was 11 o’clock and they had been singing for an hour, which flew by. Now my host dad was up for his preach, he talked about respect, but the thing here in Zambia is that they use a microphone, even though the room is quite small. My ears got blasted for an hour, but at least I knew I wouldn’t fall asleep.

Before we finished the ceremony the pastor said that those who had regrets and wanted to be blessed could come up and get prayed for, but it had to be serious, I thought I didn’t have any serious regrets so I remained in my seat. It was really cool to look at the pastor placing his hand in front of the peoples forehead and giving them an intense prayer. It was almost scary. Afterwards I shook hands with all of the people that was there, which was about 85 people. They thanked me for coming and welcomed me back. Even though I might not come back, I’m glad I skipped todays exercise for this. Peace out.