Evangelical Gym
Originally uploaded by mozakisha
He picked me up early in the morning and transported me to the multi-use pavilion. The location is usually used by Lubango’s Basketball team for games. When we entered, the place was decked out with puffy table decorations and flowers. It felt very Catholic to me, with all the pastors wearing those black shirts with the white square on the collar. The salt and pepper haired head of the church, who came down from Luanda, was wearing a big red robe like a cardinal. He also spoke in a monotone like the Pope. The Boy and Girl Scouts were also out with a vengeance. They were dressed for the celebratory occasion with safari hats, khaki safari shirts, shorts and knee high socks, fanny packs, blue beanies and yellow handkerchiefs, badges on their shirts, and water bottles, rope, and battery operated light bulbs attached to their belts. They guarded the doorways and showed people to their seats.
The main purpose of the ceremony (which ended with a terrifying confetti fire cracker) was to welcome the new provincial head of the church here in Huíla province so maybe the preaching wasn’t supposed to be inspiring. I wasn’t impressed. Salt and Pepper kept repeating that if you accept Jesus you won’t be sick anymore. He said that if you are sick for longer than 6 months, you need to change your life. I don’t agree with this kind of message, but that getting a good sermon wasn’t the reason for my presence. (I get good ones from US podcasts.) I was bout to represent!
So, I was sitting in the VIP section and those sitting next to me started to stand up as their names were announced on the speaker. They included a minister of the government, a general in the Army, the head of the hospital in Lubango, among other church officials from all over the country. The applause for all of these nobodies was typical. Guess who brought down the house, though? “Akisha, the American professor from ISCED,” that’s who! The praise and attention I get simply from being a foreigner shouldn’t amaze me anymore, but it does.
It was pretty cool seeing over 1000 people singing and dancing and waving their Bibles over their heads, even if it was in a gym. I am glad I went. A lot of my students are Christian, more so than I knew of in Mozambique.
You know, one of the promises I made to myself if I was going to come to Angola was that I needed to go to church. It has been hard since Sunday is the only day I really don’t have any responsibilities, but I have a commitment to go. When I spoke about how dry the sermon was, that is one of the reasons I have had such a hard time going to church when I am abroad. I don’t seem to get anything out of it, and people always have these expectations of me as a foreigner. I just leave as dry as I came. I don’t ever hear a decent message. Maybe I am supposed to be in church for a different reason; perhaps to affect someone else. It’s not about me.
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