Githingi, Jese's dad, came over in the morning to tell me I could do with his mother, Mama Jeri (her actual name is Eunice but I've never actually called her that so why start now) and Hannah who would be leaving for church about 8:30. Githingi is the assistant pastor (with no formal training) at New Testament Church of God, so he went on ahead to get ready for the big day.
At 8:45 I went to look for Mama Jeri. She was at Faith, Grace's daughter's, house drinking tea and eating chapo, so I told her to call me when she was ready and went home. About ten minutes later we left for church. We walked up to the main road, took a matatu to the road that leads to the junction before the church, took a tuk-tuk to the junction and walked to the church. It was a very dusty, bone-jarring ride.
The church had a stone foundation and iron sheet walls. The wind whistle through the windows and the open doors. The first thing you will notice about churches in Kenya is that no matter how poor they are they will have a sound system. The amp at New Testament was turned all the way up so that the prayers literally hurt my ears. I felt bad for baby Jese even though he was wearing a knitted hat with ear flaps over his head!
We sat through one hour of praise and worship and then another of speeches and introduction (mind you it's all in swahili)...come hour three the bishop got up to preach. And preach he did in Kikuyu with translation into Swahili. Now I have a fairly extensive Swahili vocabulary but I still suck at stringing sentences together. So by hour three I'm fighting to stay awake... Thank heavens I'd gotten by phone settings fixed and was able to get FB on my phone again... (Not that I was on FB instead of "listening" to the sermon...wink, wink!
The introduction/welcome of the baby was an interesting affair. The family was called up along with the pastors in attendance...which it turned out there were quite a few and some members of the congregation.
The baby wasn't baptized. Instead we passed him first one way and then the other around the circle of people who had been called to the front of the church.
At this point I'm standing in the circle and trying to take pictures at the same time. Near the end John King'atua took the microphone and asked Githingi and Hannah a series of questions...like what we do at a baptism.
After that we ate rice and beans with a bit of meat in it and arrowroot and tea.
I still haven't figured out the theology of the New Testament Church of God. All I know for sure is that Hannah wears a pink head scarf because she is not supposed to show her hair and never wears pants. Not much to go on.
What I know for sure is that I'm really over sitting through four hour Swahili church services... I need to get some Swahili lessons ASAP.
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