In Africa everything is longer...

Coming from the States where we are so time conscious it is very apparent how long things take here. From just getting ready to leave in the morning (“leave at 9:00” usually means leave at 10:00), to getting time on the internet (the best internet café in town is still slow and sometimes just goes down completely), to making dinner (home at 5:30pm hungry, means we’ll eat at 8:00pm). Now, all these things try our patience at times, but we’re learning to be flexible and hold things loosely :-). Other things, however, last a really long time, but are actually really good things that we can learn a lot from. Yesterday we went to a 7 hour church service!!! Yes, we spent 7 hours in the exact same seat (not always sitting of course). This is surprising to most of us American church goers as we get a little anxious when our services start going past the hour mark. Here, there was no sense in looking at our watches, because we had no idea when it was “supposed” to be over, and even if there was a goal time, they always overshoot that by an hour or so. It was somewhat of a special church service as the ministry, Eternal Word, was celebrating their 18th year anniversary, so we thought “oh, normally they don’t go THIS long,” but then we were told that usually they feed everyone and it can last until dark. So, we got there at 9:00am and didn’t leave until 4:00pm with no lunch :-). Luckily we still had some cliff bars that we snuck in, but everyone else didn’t eat anything! Talk about commitment and faith huh? Also, we were meeting in a makeshift building that only had a roof over part of it, so several people were out in the hot sun or peeking in through cracks in the walls. We were sweating under the roof! We’ve gotten pretty used to just being hot a lot of the time during the day, and are very thankful that it cools down here at night in Harare!! The service was pretty amazing and people loved it! I wonder what would happen if our church service went 7 hours without feeding people, kids and all?

(<- Everyone leaving the Service)

(Here we are AFTER the service... still smiling ->)

Before that, on Saturday we went to a wedding. We were there for 5 hours which isn’t that different from a U.S. wedding, but we didn’t go to the whole thing. The ceremony started at 9:00am and then the reception was still going on at 5:00pm with a family celebration to follow. It was really cool to experience our first African wedding!

Things were a little different….they cut the cake during the ceremony and then give pieces of it to everyone there and bigger pieces to important family and friends….there is much more cheering and celebrating during the actual ceremony than ours of course…..and then there is the whole gift giving thing.

(<- The CAKE, or what was left of it. Cool huh?)

So, during the reception, people bring their gift up to the front and present it to the bride and groom and the emcee announces what it is to EVERYONE! So, if someone gave some pots and pans, it would be announced, and if someone gave cash, the exact amount would be announced. Churches also come up together and give presents from their particular church, and that is announced! It was crazy. Justin and I felt a little pressure to join in with Eternal Word, so we went up and gave too :-). Imagine what kind of presents you would get if we did this in the States. Can I go back and have my wedding over and do it this way? :-)

<- YAY, Ice Cream!)

<-Somehow we ended up getting a picture with the bride and groom. Maybe because we were white or because we knew Tatenda and Lucia... they're kind of a big deal.

So, that was our weekend….a long wedding followed by a long church service, but both very cool! Yesterday, after waiting a long time to leave the house :-), we went out and actually did something really quickly! We were able to help Tatenda and Lucia buy a new vehicle!!! After the accident a couple of weeks ago they have been without two of their ministry’s primary means of transportation. All the kids at the orphanage we are staying at were not able to attend the church service yesterday because they didn’t have transportation. So, today we went used-car shopping in Harare, Zimbabwe! It was actually fairly similar to buying a used car in the States except the car salesmen here don’t hassle you as much when you’re looking which is nice. After going to several lots or “garages” as they call them here, we found two that we liked, both were minivans that would seat 7 people and could act as a really good intermediate vehicle until they had enough money to buy a minibus and a 4x4 truck for the bush areas. We had a mechanic come and check them out, and he informed us that we could get a better deal with one of his buddies. So we ditched the two we had worked for all morning and went to another lot, which turned out to be the greatest thing we did all day. We met his friend who had a bigger minivan than the ones we were looking at and it was a lower price! So after some negotiating, done by Lucia, not by us white folk, we got him down to a great price and did the paperwork and voila, new vehicle for the Gunguwo household. It’s a Toyota Gaia (I think that is how it’s spelled). They were so excited and it was really cool to see how God has provided. It was just about the exact amount that we had raised to come here! PTL and thanks for all your prayers!!. While we were really excited to help out with the car, we are still looking for ways to provide for some more needs while we’re here, like purchasing Bibles and bikes for their pastors in the bush areas, helping them with some of the expenses for their large December conference, and paying some of the school fees for the kids at the orphanages. On that note, just pray that we have wisdom to help in the right places, since there is so much to help with! :-) So even though some things here take a long time, most of them are really wonderful things and I’ve been encouraged and inspired by this group of people. This past weekend we experienced two of them, celebrating a marriage and worshipping God. Why not consider setting aside a whole day devoted to worshipping God and fellowshipping with other believers? Why am I so quick to want to get my To Do list done all the time? It’s still there on Monday and things will get done….eventually. I am learning this and I know I have lots more to learn. Well that it’s for the past few days here. We might not be on the internet the rest of the week, so keep us in your prayers this weekend. We will be venturing to Mozambique! We are going to go encourage some people and plant a church in a village just across the border. The drive is probably a long one (although we’ll probably hear, “oh it’s not that far”), and it will probably be super hot, but I now know what to expect :-). And we now have a great and reliable (cross your fingers) vehicle to get us there, with working air conditioning even!