Happy New Year!

Our new year started early on Monday morning as we headed off along the shores of the Lake to Kayenze. We joined Pastor Amon and the church for their New Year's Day celebration service. The church has just acquired power and their first sound system - some speakers and a couple of microphones - so it was celebratory indeed for them and certainly noisy for us! They decorated the sound board with Christmas lights and hooked up a mobile phone and hit play! The power was on and off throughout the morning, but all enjoyed the singing and dancing regardless. And this was after they had already had a long service on Sunday morning followed by a late night New Years' Eve prayer meeting until 1am.

Gathering to sing and dance!

Tim was preaching and spoke on the Lord's Prayer, on how this prayer empowers us to be salt and light in our world. Then there was an extended time of thanksgiving testimonies, which came from everyone who had given in the "chair" offering... which appeared to be everyone. There was a large stack of chairs at the front and as Pastor Amon held up a chair, a person came to share and then the chair was set among the congregation. It is really wonderful ... they just don't have enough chairs for everyone any more. And so church members contributed for more chairs. It is amazing to see how this church has grown over the past couple of years. With the church gathering together many groups of farmers from the community to start conservation agriculture and also facilitating the beekeeping group, this church is really making a difference in many people's lives. Pastor Amon was telling us after the service how more people are coming to Jesus.

Kayenze Church

After the three-hour service, the heavens opened (the congregation was evacuating quickly!) and we joined a couple of others from the church for lunch at a family's home. The plan had been for a big church lunch for all on Christmas Day... but things didn't come together in time. So the plan then was to gather for a church lunch on New Year's Day, but that didn't come together either. But in the shelter of this family's small home we enjoyed a delicious lunch of rice and beans and cabbage with sodas.

There were no fireworks or champagne here. No resolutions that will be broken by next week. But there was plenty of music and dancing. And there was meaningful thanksgiving for a year passed and prayerful anticipation for the new year ahead! And it leaves our family so thankful for the privilege of another year here!

Happy New Year!

Kayenze