Written by Emma
Today contained several of my favourite moments in Tanzania so far, including some memories I will treasure for a long time! We have been in Magugu for the weekend, staying in a guesthouse overnight (booking out the entire establishment and entertaining the locals with late night kapa haka practice on the balcony!)
We had breakfast at the local restaurant (the same place as dinner last night, little more than a hole in the wall) and it was delicious. Sweet crepe-like chapatis and egg chapatis, with sweet milk tea and samosas… and we were shocked to find out yesterday’s dinner has only cost around $35 to feed 19 people!
Then it was off to church, a service which would run from 9.30-1 pm yet not be boring in the slightest. Held on the local school, it was a room without doors or windows with plain brick walls and a dirt floor – yet the finest churches in the world couldn’t match the Spirit present! The service started off with lively dancing and singing to the Lord, which we all joined in with! We danced around the room as the locals encouraged us to jump and skip and shout – the joyous freedom in praise and worship that the locals demonstrated profoundly touched all of us, with many of the team commenting later that it was their highlight of the day and “we should be more like that at home at GCC!”
Blueprint and the Joshua team took the rest of the service. We performed a waiata (He Honore), an action song (Tutira Mai Nga Iwi) and our haka (a Christian haka from Easter Camp which honours Jesus). You know you have done a haka well when children start crying! Apart from that, the locals seemed to love it. In between we shared testimonies of what we have seen God do this week, as well as our experience of Tanzania and our gratitude towards the hosts.
I am enjoying this blog 🙂
I appreciate the time and effort you have all put in to it!
Cannot wait to hear about it all in person too!! Hope we can have a meal and talk when you are all back!
bring your dance moves on friday:)