Worship from every tribe, tongue, and nation!

Sawubona bobhuti y bosisi! (whenever I don't know a word in a foreign language I always blindly substitute Spanish...)

So, medical school has officially started and my lazy days of summer and happy times in Swaziland are now completely done. However, that doesn't mean that I have ceased writing stories from my trip! I am still trying to type down a few to share with you all as I come to it (although I will admit that they will probably appear with less frequency now). Today's story presents one of my favorite memories from the trip...nightly worship in Nsubane in our hut around a candle with fellow believers. The story goes as follows:

In one of our more primitive locations, we stayed on a homestead with a family in the community. The girls slept all together in a rondavul (a round hut with a thatched roof). On the night of our arrival, the family informed us that they wanted to worship with us after dinner. After an exciting meal of pap (ugali...flavorless cornmeal, water and salt in the rough consistency of lumpy mashed potatoes for those of you who don't know what that is) and chicken, the family gathered with us inside of our rondavul around the candles lit in the floor. Unsure of what to do, we started to sing. The evening continued with the group simply singing and worshiping the Lord, first in SiSwati, then in English, and back and forth. As I looked around at the candle lit faces, I began to think of the church spoken of in Acts where the believers ate and lived together and worshiped daily together as the Lord continued to add to their numbers...and add to our numbers he did! We continued in this fashion of nightly worship until our last night in Nsubane. By the end of our stay, some students from the University of Swaziland helping with a community project had also joined our homestead. They joined in our worship until on the last evening we had 45 people gathered by candlelight in our 15 foot diameter hut. It was such a beautiful sound to hear the worship of the Lord in another tongue and visualize that day that every tongue would worship our Lord!

Oh that you could have sat in that candlelit room and seen the adoration of the Lord on each face as voices were lifted pure and unaided to the glory of the Lord! In those moments I think I learned the true meaning of "He inhabits the praises of his people."

Well, I suppose that will be all for now. I have uploaded some pictures online at yorkphoto.com (you'll have to email me for the link though because it's under my password). I hope all is well with you, and if I haven't seen you already in person, I hope to share more with you soon!

Phendulile