Church life is not for the faint of heart

 

Friday ;  400 youth at the cathedral for a 4 day camp

Saturday ; a wedding of a young man from the cathedral

Sunday ; preaching at cathedral

Monday; no wifi government holiday

It is now Tuesday evening, I hope that I can finish this note

I  guess I could have stay in my house all weekend but what fun would that have been. So with words and pics I will take you along my weekend.

Friday Youth Camp

I can not believe the schedule they have, from 545am till 930pm. Thursday until Sunday afternoon. I was asked if I would attend the Friday morning session to bring a message to them. Need to keep in mind, 4oo kids, looking at the foreigner, female, white  and a priest, what message would be helpful.

Well the date was January 6 so talk about Epiphany of course, I take the Wise Men from my nativity set

Back row is the Wisemen

So I have three girls walking up and down showing my Wisemen to the kids. I say the Wisemen took gifts to Jesus, and my punch line is: what are they going to take as their gift to Jesus

Lunch time comes and my time is finished so back to the office for my TGIF Lunch, everyone in the office gets a free lunch as long as I get peanuts, plantain chips and a coke.

Saturday Wedding

Augustine, a young man who worships at the cathedral, teaches Sunday School and works as a dental tech is marrying Comfort in her Pentecostal church in Asawinso. So a van load of supporters take off to support him, After an hour or so we are looking for the church, no one seems to know where ii is located, a bit of back and forth and we arrive at 10am. When is the wedding scheduled...but 10 am. No one in the church but in we go, the Precentor Benjamin and I walk up towards the front to sit down but an Elder appears and invites us to sit on stage (we are wearing cassocks). So the next hour unfolds, pastor arrives, more congregation arrives and so does the groom (I know because he sits under the wedding canopy. 1130ish a car pulls up decorated with coloured flowers etc Bride has arrived. She si escorted in by her family, she is very beautiful.

The Pastor asked Benjamin if he wanted to preach or did I, he knows that off the cuff sermons are not part of my resume ever so he declined for both of us. Promises made and back under the canopy for the closing prayers

I will continue tomorrow with this sag as it has taken two hours to do this much because the internet keeps cutting out. Till tomorrow

Now it is Wednesday and I try to continue

 brida and groom under the canopy as husband and wife

just 

Next is the reception at their home

Just reminded that off the main road, neighbourhood driving is like on paths through the farmer's field, hardened red earth with cracks and fissures from the rains making the driving very difficult.

reception in the courtyard in the family compound with pointy tents for shade.

I was again reminded that tradition and culture reigns supreme in that Canon Benjamin and I were not seated with the parishioners but removed to under the overhang of the building. When it came time to eat we were shown into a bedroom for Canon Benjamin to eat. I have a take away lunch to eat when I got home.  I was told that had we been seated with everyone else they would not eat until we were finished,. It just seems to me that we are no better than the next so do not need to be set apart but when in Rome...

 

Sunday: preaching

I arrive a little early and realize that the 400 kids from Friday are part of the service, the sermon I have is not good for kids. Thank goodness for internet and google, find a kids bulletin insert that looks good, I embellish it, get the font out and water in a pitcher and am ready to go. I say the Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan but we do not have the River |Jordan so we use a font with water poured in. It seemed tp please Precentor so at least one person got the message..

will add video when I get assistance from Victor

needless to say I rested well on Monday