A Catholic Girl in Burundi

Although the afternoon was quite slow, allowing some time to relax, write much of this blog, and take a quick nap, the morning was a little bit more lively. It's Sunday, and to most Christians that means church. So, that's where we went this morning.

Three out of the five people on this trip - Brian, Brad, and Duncan - the main leaders who have been down here before, are Christian ministers. Then there is me and Brian's ten-year-old son, Jacob. Half jokingly, I was asked if I wanted to preach at one of the services this morning, and very un-jokingly I said "no". However, the other three did, each one at a different church, so I stuck with Brad and joined him at the service that he ministered to.

On the drive to church, I had an incredibly strong sense of fear rising up in me, almost to the point of producing tears. Most of this arose from the natural fear of such an unknown culture and area, but not of the fear of the people (just to clarify). I've been to Mexico, whose poverty is very similar to Burundi's in a lot of ways, but even there I at least knew some of the language. Here, I am a "mizungu" or a white person. The language is completely foreign to me, and I stand out, well, like a white person in Africa. I have always wanted to come to Africa, but that doesn't mean that it isn't quite a culture shock, and with change often comes fear in my life.

He was making cinder blocks on the side of the road

However, I managed to override my fears and no tears were shed (although a lot of deep breathing was performed). I did make several observations during the drive, frightened or not.

* True Africans are absolutely beautiful people. All of them. I can't fully describe it, but there is such a natural beauty to every single person that I have seen here that it is almost unreal. They also have near perfect and brilliantly white teeth.
* There is a lot of French mixed in with the Kurundi language and on signs, which I learned is actually because the Belgian took over for a while after WWI.
* Honking is a form of communication while driving. There is a lot of honking to include things such as "I'm passing you", "move your bike out of the road", "I'm coming around a blind corner so watch out", "I'm going to drive by and you are going to be really close to my vehicle", and of course "Get out of my way!"
* There are a lot more people with cell phones than I thought I'd see.
* Because it's Sunday, many people were wearing their Sunday best, to include suits, ties, dresses, heels, and everything that makes them look like they are about to meet God for the week, but much more dressed up than I would have expected.

My view during the church service

Upon arrival at the church that I went to, we were excitedly greeted by the pastor and shown our seats...at the very front of the church, right behind the altar. Now, before I go on, I must say that from what I'm told, we were at the most affluent church that Brad had ever seen in Burundi - there were cement floors, four full walls, an actual drum kit (as opposed to a barrel), and actual speakers, amps, and mics for worship and praise. As I have mentioned, there was also an altar, which I found to be ironic because most non-Catholic Christian churches that I have been to do not have, or at least use, an altar that I can recall. I find this interesting only because I learned earlier today that Catholics are not considered Christians here.

Once we stepped inside, we joined in immediately with the worship songs already going on. I titled this blog entry in the way that I did because of this very activity. If you've never been to a Catholic service, it is incredibly structured - prayers recited at specific times, you know it's going to last roughly an hour, and the music, even at its most lively, will probably only incite someone to start swaying in their pew. This was not the experience in this church. Picture a Catholic who has grown to be uncomfortable in most worship settings over the years (Catholic or not) being plopped right dead front and center in the most "Southern Baptist"-like service that they have ever experienced. That was me this morning. I won't lie, I thought to myself multiple times "God has a a sense of humor in His ways of making me uncomfortable for growth purposes sometimes". But, at one point the music got really fun and I just went with it, jumping, smiling, and running in place with the rest of the bunch. (I must also add that one of the first songs that they played was a song by Matt Maher, a Catholic artist, and was sung in English before being sung in Kurundi, which was also quite interesting to hear.)

Brad said that he saw me being filled with the spirit, I called it just having fun and going with the rest of the group, but either way, I'm pretty sure that God was chuckling - in a good way, of course.

The children all came up and were lovin' the Lord
through dance at this point in the service

After this session of worship, the preacher spoke a little bit, and then there was more worship. In fact four more groups came up and sang two songs a piece, one on the way up to the stage and one while they were on the stage. Then the preacher spoke more for his pre-sermon. Then Brad spoke for the sermon. And after that, the preacher spoke again for his post-sermon, basically recapping everything that Brad had said. It was all in all about 3 hours long, by far the longest church service of any denomination that I have ever been to. But, it was beautiful.




After the service, we were greeted by members of the congregation. There was a tremendous amount of love for us that they showed and seemed honored just to shake hands or give us a hug. It was quite humbling.

                                    

                                       Some of the congregation. The woman in blue had some
very deep faith.

                                    

                                              More congregants. The woman in purple was in the choir.

We came back to the hotel after that and met up with everyone else. Later, we ate dinner and had some of the most intense and non-judgemental religious discussion that I have ever encountered. Although I generally keep my personal faith and beliefs fairly quiet or subtle, especially around people of the church, I have begun to feel comfortable enough with Brian, Brad, and Duncan to discuss many of the aspects of faith that I have admittedly struggled with over the years. They all brought up very insightful points in a very non-condemning way, something that I have very rarely found possible with people of strong convictions in any faith. It was quite refreshing.

And, so now I close out the night wrapping up this blog. It's been a very insightful day in spiritual, internal, and emotional ways. Tomorrow starts the real reason for us coming here, and we will be speaking to the community about their needs and seeing if and how we will be able to help them to achieve some of their wants. I'm quite excited to be further humbled, especially upon meeting some of the injured Burundian soldiers that we will be talking to tomorrow. More to follow... :)

These two girls hijacked my phone while I was writing
this blog. They picked up incredibly quickly how to
take photos and videos.