Sunday, October 30

Sorry about not getting the blog for yesterday posted sooner – late night!! We all survived the party – even the balloons on the fence were still in a party mood. We left early this morning to attend the English service at King David UMC in downtown Mutare. We thought the service was at 8 but it turns out it started at 8:30. We had the preacher with us so we just decided that we were early in order to give him time prepare for the service. We had plenty of time to meet people and watch the final preparations for the service.

We finally got everyone into the church and the singing before the service started – "Leaning on the everlasting arms," "He leadeth me: oh blessed thought," and "To God be the glory." The UM hymnal got quite a workout – and so did we ... no funeral dirges here! Next was Psalm 42 (read responsively), another hymn "My hope is built," then a prayer, and then we had an anthem by the youth choir ... the Emmanuel Choir (11 teenagers). All of the music, by the way, was played on a Yamaha keyboard, a set of drums, and an electric guitar. (And possibly we could have turned the volume down just a little bit!!). Then back to the hymnal for the confession, pardon and assurance (891).

Then the worship committee sang two praise songs ... but in Shona. (??) When they finished the senior pastor stood to give the announcements: a week long revival sponsored by the Shona service will start tomorrow and on Saturday there will be a mission sent out to the rural areas. And then he announced that today was the district wide "Africa University Sunday" and that a special offering would be taken. Then Bonnie was invited to introduce the team and talk about what we were doing at AU. When we were done standing and sitting and standing and sitting again, the senior pastor introduced James as the preacher of the day, and then said that he was leaving to take a service elsewhere!

The lay leader then stood and gave more announcements including that next week was communion since it was the first Sunday of the month. (Does any of this recitation sound familiar?!)

Now the assistant minister read the scriptures (Genesis 4:1-11, Matthew 13:10-15). Emmanual Choir sang another anthem while the younger children left the sanctuary to go to Sunday School in the fellowship hall. Then, at last, James stood to give the sermon. He preached on "God colored glasses" and did a fine job. Which made it a bit puzzling when the assistant minister recapped the sermon in case the congregation missed some of the English.

Back to the hymnal – Apostle’s Creed (881), then the offering was taken up while the Emmanual Choir sang another piece followed by the doxology and a prayer of blessing (in Shona). The woman leading prayers asked for joys and concerns, wrote them in a book, and then prayed them again for us. We prayed for Dona Lou’s 85^th birthday in a few weeks, one of the kids ask for prayers for all of the students who are sitting exams, someone wanted prayers for a job opportunity, someone asked for prayers for our team, then someone from AU asked how many in the congregation was either an AU grad or currently studying there. Probably 20 or people stood up. And then the gentleman (who turns out to be the assistant dean of education!!) told the congregation that the Indiana conferences had built four of the dorms. Bonnie then stood and announced that one of the four dorms was named after Bishop Sheldon Duecker and that he had passed on Friday. So we prayed for him and his family. And a final prayer for countries that have war.
A final hymn – 462 "Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus" – and James pronounced the benediction. About 10 minutes shy of a two hour service.

We were then invited to the fellowship hall where everyone had sodas (Coca-Cola and Fanta Orange), popcorn, donuts (or rather deep-fried balls of dough), and biscuits (cookies). And lots of visiting.
Back on the mini-bus and we headed for Vumba mountains and a resort called Leopard Rock Hotel (visited by the Queen, the Queen Mother, and Diana, Princess of Wales at one point or another) for lunch. We are in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe, and Mutare is not far from the Mozambique border. AU and La Rochelle are north east of Mutare. All very mountainous for those of us from the flat state of Indiana! We headed south east along a really winding road going up and up to get to the hotel. This drive is a tourist destination – both for Zimbabweans and for international tourists – so there are plenty of roadside vendors selling baskets, embroidery, batiks, and sculptures. Hotels and holiday cottages dot the drive too. The scenery was magnificent – sheer drops, long vistas, plenty of unusual things to see.

We had dinner on the veranda ... and let’s just say that the service was ... bad. It took three hours to get the mean ordered, served and eaten. Even Susan and Douglas were surprised at how bad it was!! Food was good but .... The link to a website for Leopard Rock Hotel has been added to this blog so you can see what it could have been!!

Then the long ride home to LaRochelle ... stopping to buy some things, watching a wildfire head for a stand of cut grass bundles for thatching, through Mutare and home to find Vice Chancellor Tagwira and Mrs. Tagwira waiting to say good-bye – he is leaving in the morning to fly to Kenya and he wanted to say farewell. Then a light supper (Bonnie is convinced that Simon doesn’t know what a light meal is ... and after our experience at Leopard Rock we appreciate him and his staff even more!) and an early night.

A new week of blessings begins ...