A Pentecostal Church Experience

Yesterday Augustine asked me if I attend church. I tried to tell her that I usually go to church for the big things…aka Christmas and Easter. Bad, I know. She ended up inviting me to church, today. And I thought, oh what the hey. It couldn’t hurt, what else would I be doing, and it is a good way to show my face in the community. It ended up being an interesting experience at the very least.

First of all, I have never been to a Pentecostal service.

Oh, and this morning I was feeling a little homesick for some reason. And dressing up and going to church reminded me of mom and how she loves it when I go to church with her. So I wore my favorite, new model and put on a headband. But when I got to Augustine’s, she wrapped this scarf thingy around my head. And when I got to church I realized that all the women cover their hair. Interesting and I don’t know the reason why.

So the church is this one little room with sticks for walls and a thatched roof. There are rows of handmade benches. And some little plastic chairs for the little kids, in the front. The men sit on the right and women to the left. And the younger you are the closer you sit to the front. So Augustine and I sat to the left, middle.

The service started with some little boys playing the drums. Picture 8 to 12 year olds drumming away on some marching band drums. And omigosh, they were really good. I was impressed; they had some really good rhythm. Then they sang a song in French. Translated, the lyrics were “My God is good, Our God is good.” And I started to cry a little. I was fighting hard to hold back my tears. It really kinda hit me this morning that I am in literally one of the poorest countries in the world. And it really was a beautiful thing to see these people thanking God and praising him when they literally have next to nothing. And the stuff they do have is often old, dirty, used, etc. but they are still sooooo happy and are so welcoming and host-y (yes, I think I made that up cause I can’t think of the real word, lol). I think I was crying also cause I was homesick , as mentioned above.

Next the pastor had people come up and announce to everyone what they were thankful for. And then they danced around in a circle and people come up to dance with them. This went on for a while, and Augustine somehow got me to go up and greet everyone. And yes I had to dance around too. I think my new philosophy is that I am going to be stared at and feel like everything I do is ridiculous and weird, so I might as well do whatever and be ridiculous. Whatever, I do what I want! (Can you guess who says that? Hint…it comes from my favorite show).

The rest of the service I only really half understood cause I was tired, my back hurt, and half the service was in local language that sounds like jibberish to me. The other half was in French, but the pastor spoke not very clear and not so loud a national phenomena, I swear!

Another thing I was distracted by this cute little girl, who had to has to be about 2ish years old. She wore a cute little blue model and shiny black shoes. She got up and danced around everytime the boys beat the drum and everyone sang. Then during the service she would not stay put. She wanted to sit in her own little chair but kept popping up. Her older sister kept placing her back in it, but then she’d just come right back. Then she was wrapped on her sister’s back (Beninese style) and kept hitting, pulling at, and pinching the little girl next to her. This little girl was hilarious. Quite the character she was, and kept me entertained throughout the service.

So that was it. I don’t know how often I will be attending this service. I kinda wanna check out the Catholic cathedral that’s here and maybe some other churches, but we’ll see.

PS
Parmesan cheese. The KRAFT kind. I would love some. It doesn’t exist here.