Easter in Africa
When moving
to a new country, special occasions naturally transpose your thoughts to what
these occasions are like at home. What
has the family planned for this weekend? What’s happening at church? What’s been
the focus in the community? The first
thing I noticed about Easter in Kenya is there were absolutely no signs of
Easter bunnies and chocolate anywhere.
Nothing in the supermarket indicated any strategies to generate extra
seasonal revenue - quite a difference from Canada. I hadn’t even noticed the absence of the
chocolate bunnies until I started to compare what Easter would have been like
at home. Despite our best intentions to stay focused on the Christian meaning of Easter and our participation in
Easter worship services, we would still be shopping for some chocolate.
Don’t
misunderstand my thoughts about this though. It does not mean that this culture
has captured the perfect Easter focus.
We were a little disappointed actually over the past few weeks with almost no mention of the season of Lent, outside our own opportunities to
draw attention to it. Remembering the
various rhythms and traditions associated with the Christian calendar doesn’t always
seem to surface here. Last Tuesday
during THQ chapel, the officer who led the service relayed the account of Jesus
washing the disciples feet in John 13 and challenged us to remember the servant
attitude of Christ as he made his way to the Cross. This was a meaningful
thought and we appreciated being drawn to this important piece of Jesus
journey.
Both the
Territorial leaders and ourselves decided some weeks ago that we would not
conduct any Divisional events during the Easter weekend. We felt it was
important for all corps officers to be leading their own congregations during
this sacred Christian weekend. (If
either of us were specialling, it would mean a whole Division or District would
gather together). So we agreed we would support our local corps.
Early in the
week, Morris was asked to preach at one of the small corps in Kakamega on Good
Friday. It’s a corps that his Admin Assistant, Judith, and her husband, Eric,
now lead - along with their appointment at THQ. Eric is the Territorial cashier. We gladly accepted this invitation to the
Ikonyero corps. Morris has always found
preaching on Good Friday to be the most challenging but meaningful sermon he
can prepare. With the translation, he would limit his usual speaking time.
When we
arrived at the corps on Friday morning, many of the soldiers were making their
way to the local market place with their two drums and the flag waving. They
marched around the market proclaiming the message of the Cross in their singing
and the witness of their uniforms before returning for the morning worship.
About 40-45 people gathered in the humble building that has a dirt floor and
walls of brick that desperately need finishing. Half the congregation were
young people – children, teenagers, and young adults which was exciting! The corps is just 16 months old but it was an
outpost for 15 years prior. The sincerity of their worship was quite clear. They
were very happy that the Chief and his wife (Mama) had come to be with them and
we were glad to be there.
Ikonyero Corps - Good Friday morning worship
A glimpse of the SA Flag leading soldiers to the market.
On Sunday
morning, we returned to the corps, not as speaking guests this time, but with
the intention that we would simply be one of the worshippers. We arrived a
little before the service and once again the soldiers were out for their Open Air meeting, this time stopping to preach a short gospel message of the
resurrection. While the Open Air went
on, we noticed several ladies bringing large containers of water (on their
head of course) to the back of the corps building and soon an aroma reaches us.
A ‘lunch’ was being prepared today because this was one of the Sundays that the
members of the outpost joined the main corps for worship. These folks would travel about seven kilometers (many walking), so the corps made sure there was food for them
before they returned home.
As the
service was about to start, we knew it was hard for us to just ‘slip in’ to the
congregation. As tradition toward
leadership dictates, we were ‘marched in’ with the corps officers and given the
center seat on the platform. Our only participation though was greeting the
people and a closing prayer. We had wondered how the morning worship would
begin, remembering many Easter Sunday mornings at home with the band playing "Crown Him with many Crowns" or “Up from the grave He arose.” We were delighted
that the first song was “He lives!” No
band but the harmonious African singing accompanied by the drums did justice to
this Easter anthem of praise, especially since this morning there were over 100
in the meeting. We were very blessed!
At the end
of the service everyone stayed for lunch, including us. Unfortunately, we were
ushered into a separate room from the rest of the folk and had a private lunch
with the corps officers, a small buffet of African food. (We discovered later that everyone else’s
lunch was rice and fried cabbage).
I say 'unfortunately' not because I resent
anything about the meal that was prepared for us or the opportunity to converse
with the CO’s, but the unfortunate piece is this was another experience of
being treated as if we, as leaders, needed something more than anyone else. For
them, they would say this is a traditional sign of respect for leadership. For
us, we have to walk the fine line of respecting such traditions but also
sharing with them our perspective that we would prefer to be embraced as “one
with them.” Maybe next time we go to the
corps we can see if they would welcome that.
We told the
officers that we have decided to make Ikonyero our home corps. We won’t get to
share many Sundays because our responsibilities take us around the Territory
but we will attend when possible and support regularly with our tithes. The
CO’s were very happy. They are working on fund raising now to complete the
corps building – a concrete floor, a finished plaster for the rough brick work on the walls, and hopefully install electricity. They are so thankful to have two more
soldiers contributing. Every shilling counts.
Easter is
the most significant event in the Christian calendar. It changed the course of history for all
humankind. It is the good news that
brings hope where hope is lost. It really doesn’t matter where in the world you
are, or whether you’ve added a few chocolate treats to your celebrations or if you’ve had turkey or rice for lunch, what’s important is faith in
the Son of God who died that we might live and the knowledge that He is with us
today.
Happy Easter
everyone!
