Over the past week I have had the opportunity to go to three
different churches within the valley.
Two of them were LEC (Lesotho Evangelical Church) Churches and one of
them a AIC (African Independent church) church.
They were all quite different experiences. The Good Friday service that I talked
about on my last blog was at my home church Maphutseng LEC Church. it is one of
the oldest church communities in the country, but the building is not that old.
There were a few people there and we stuck to the liturgy closely.
Then Easter we went to Lehlolonolong LEC Church. It was an hour and a half drive a way,
but you can see it from my house, up the valley. It was a very long day all together, I left home at 7:45 in
the morning and got home after 7 pm in the evening.
I thought that the taxi was going to come to pick us up to
go there at 9 am, but at 7:40 my nkhono told me that the taxi was leaving at 8
instead. So I quickly ate breakfast, packed a lunch and walked over to
Kendelle’s house to feed the cat.
[that does not like me a bit, even if I try to feed it chicken it runs
away]. I left so quickly that I
forgot to bring my camera.
Then I walked quickly to the taxi stop, I was afraid that I
missed the taxi because there was nobody waiting. My host aunt and another nkhono were walking up there too,
so I walked with them and the Taxi did end up coming at 9. There was no need to rush at all. The taxi was quite full but we always
seemed to find room for more people when we passed them on way there. It was not just my church and the
church we were visiting but there were people from all of the LEC churches in
the area. Lots of people ended up
coming.
When we did get to the church nothing really happened for the
next few hours. Church started
around 12. So while I was waiting
I talked to the pastor about the lightening strike that had hit the church a
few months before. It caused three
trees to burn down and a few more to be damaged quite badly. This caused many people in the church
to not want to come back to worship or kids to go to the school because they
were afraid that the lightening would come back.
Then I talked to my host family about a few things and just
waited. Had a few people give me
weird looks when I told them my name and my host family said “you he is ours”.
Then I eat a little bit because I thought that church was going to start. But that was at 11 and we still had an
hour. Then we sang a bit and there
was some conflict over who should be leading between some of the youth and the
older ladies.
Then when church actually started we did a few things from
the liturgy for easter. Then there
was a wedding!!! So the couple sat
down in front of the pastor and he went through a long sermon for the
wedding. Don’t know what it was
about. Then their best man and
bride’s maid came from the very back of the church and the church was full to
the brim. Wall to wall people, so
it took a long time for them to get up to the front. Then they kissed and there was lots of singing.
Then we went to confirming the elders of the church, so that
took a while for all of the people to get up there. Then for them to go through the process of confirming them. Then they had to turn and face us while
there was more talking. Then all
of the other elders from the area churches had to shake their hands.
Then there were the children baptisms, there were about 20
of them. The pastor did all of the
liturgy for baptism at once as one large group. Then the pastor went around and baptised each of them and
said the same phrase over and over again.
Then some of the families came back for an additional blessing and they
realized that one kid never was actually baptised. So that kid was baptised at that time along with a blessing
for the family.
Then one of the people on the pastor who I think is in
training did a sermon about Easter.
She was really into and it seemed nice but I did not know what it was
about. Then everybody but the old and important people were kicked out for
communion. I did not care too much
that my Nkhono wanted me to not be there for communion because I was really
hungry and wanted to eat.
So while I was outside eating one of the leaders of the
youth tried to say that he was going to come over and eat my food. So I joked back in Sesotho the he must
be lazy because he did not pack food for himself, and that I had time to cook
my own food. My aunt who was waiting
beside me thought it was funny.
And all of his friends laughed at him as well.
I ate a whole lot of food that I brought from home, then I
was given papa and moroho, which my aunt ate. Then I was given more food to eat but my nkhono ate it.
Then when we were going home, some of the ladies from the
taxi went to a relatives’ house to eat some food. Then we were finally going we were almost out of the small
village when all of the women in the taxi wanted to stop because they heard
that there was lots of meat at a certain house. So they all got off and came back 20 mins later with containers
full of beef. Each person had
about 2 pounds of meat to bring home, the taxi then smelled like meat.
Then we finally got home and I tried to be nice to
Kendelle’s cat but he hid again.
And I finally got home after the sun went down and had another meal
before bed. It was a long but enjoyable day.
Then this week we went to the AIC church, across the river
and down near the main road. Going
to this church was quite the experience as well. We had to ford the river with our vehicle to get to the other
side. In the future there is a
road being built that would make the trip much easier on gravel road. When we got there we had to go up a
steep hill. The church was held in
a small room that was near the mill for the village.
The service was much different than the ones at the LEC
church. There was no liturgy;
anybody was free to speak what was on their minds. The church was still mostly women, but there were a few men.
There was lots of dancing and singing with drum accompaniment. When ever somebody wanted to say
something they would raise their hand and all of the singing would stop and
they could speak. When they were
done speaking everybody would start singing again. It was a nice church service to be at.
I thought that it was really far away but I realized that
one of my neighbours goes to that church.
It must have taken at least 2 hours to walk there. We are planning on going back there
some time and then I will take pictures of what it was like inside of the
church. I did not think it would
be appropriate to take pictures during the church service. But the Basotho we went with said that
they know that foreigners like to take pictures and that is fine.
I have not had a Sunday service at Maphutseng LEC church
since the last week of February, so this weekend I am looking forward to having
a relaxing service here.
