December 26th

This morning I went to church with Alusine to the DDM. I will not likely do so again. I try to be open to the different ways people express their faith, and I love passionate expression, but this place seemed more like a madhouse… First off, they screamed their worship songs… I don’t think there was any reason for them to scream so loud, I know that I’ve sung pretty loudly before especially at things like the mass worship sessions at Cru events, you know caught in the moment and all. They talked prior to their worship about making a joyful noise before the Lord, not to be sacrilegious or anything, but I think if I were God listening to that I would be covering my ears (presuming He has them). It just did not feel like worship. But I thought, ok, so they do things a little different (they also dance like epileptics…). Moving beyond that, I was ok during the offering time but then the person giving the message came forward. (he was a guest speaker) He really turned me off to wanting to attend there. He almost immediately began speaking at the top of his voice, practically shouting, and it went a little bit like this (mind you it was krio and while I don’t know a lot yet I can usually get the gist of it) “gibberish words *gasp for breath* gibberish word *gasp* gibberish *gasp* gibberish”. I even asked Alusine what he was saying and he told me he couldn’t understand all of it. I can understand being passionate and speaking forcefully but not psychotic madman, don’t yell and certainly don’t scream at us, there is just no need. On top of that he was jumping around the platform, walking around the room, throwing his arms around, throwing his body around. I just don’t think any of that was necessary and I did not enjoy it one bit. The regular pastor would get up from time to time and dance around behind him while he was speaking. She wandered back and forth and around. The thing that made me decide I don’t want to go again was that the people loved it the whole time, which says to me it’s a pretty common occurrence. At the end of his nearly hour long message (of which I got zilch) he started doing deliverance, a woman came forward who hadn’t been feeling well and he apparently was attempting to cast out demons. And a boy who couldn’t open one eye came forward and he told him in 72 hours it would open. Don’t get me wrong, I totally believe that God can bring miraculous healing, but I guarantee these people have been praying about it and if it hasn’t happened, GO TO THE HOSPITAL. I wanted to get up and tell the kid in 72 hours if he wasn’t better he’d better come to the hospital. Then, a bunch of people had brought bottles of water and he did a blessing and said that if they drink the water then it would heal them of any bodily or spiritual ailments. It just seemed too strange to me, and a
little too presumptuous. Hopefully my assessment doesn’t offend anyone, if it does… oh well, that’s how I feel about it. I came home and rested for a little while, still not feeling well, I don’t know why, still stomach issues. At around 4:30 Tom, Karen and I went to this thing called “The Outing” that they have on Boxing day (day after Christmas, it’s a British thing). It was basically an outdoor dance but getting in was dangerous. These people were being brought in on Hondas and they were coming down this narrow path that people were walking on and the Hondas didn’t care. To not get hit you had to dodge into the weeds along the side. They almost hit Karen and I was getting very mad because it was unsafe and more than one of them was driving under the influence, one guy was out of his mind and driving his Honda, not good. There were other drunks too, one was harassing Karen about needing to get a ticket, which we knew so he didn’t need to say anything, but he probably didn’t even know where he was for sure he was so out of it. Once inside the garden where it was being held I saw a few people I knew (some of my students). There was music and not much else, other than people selling food and drinks. We didn’t stay long, maybe 15 minute and then we left, not really out type of thing. On the way back I stopped and visited
Solomon who was cooking dinner for him and some friends. I stayed for a little bit and told him about my church experience, he found it rather amusing as I used various sound effects when describing the psycho pastor guy. After getting home and having dinner I watched part of a movie with Tom and Karen until Alusine stopped by. He had been at the outing and had a lot of fun, different tastes in entertainment I guess. He left to go home and clean up as there was a boxing day dance at the community center, so I went to Pa Kanu’s to wait for him and Solomon to meet me there. We had a couple sodas and then I walked Alusine to a friend’s house (he wanted me to go to the dance, but not my thing). From there Solomon and I walked home and I went to bed.

Blessings from Kamakwie,
Ryan Brooks