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| Our house at Ndubs, I miss that deck chair! |
Ndubs
itself is owned by the Chengelo School and is an outdoor activity
centre largely for the school but also for local schools in the
community. One of the greatest pleasures of being there was seeing
local children, who have never had the opportunity to go on a school
trip let alone do the activities you can do at Ndubs, break into a
smile when they got to have a go at a climbing wall or raft building.
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| Some local kids with our team getting ready to scale the wall |
Our
first few days there was the perfect balance between getting to know
the community and clarifying our aims as a team for the rest of the
trip. After the intensity of our time in Masaiti (and several doses
of food poisoning!!) it was the perfect time to stop and reflect. For
me our time kicked off brilliantly on our first Sunday at Ndubs when
we went off to the Ndubaluba Compound Church.
The
church itself was basically a small brick building with a corrugated
iron roof and the 'pews' were made out of brick and mud. The altar
was a simple wooden table with two baskets of plastic flowers on each
end that I saw someone painstakingly dusting outside the church
before the service. The music was provided by a seriously retro Casio
keyboard which we were kept entertained by while the congregation
turned up in 'African time' with some of it's sample tunes including
a rendition of 'Jingle Bells'! They were very shocked when we all
started singing along!!
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| Ndubaluba Compound Church |
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| The inside of the church (also used as a classroom hence the blackboard and times tables!) |
As
I sat in that service, which was so full of colour, of the most
amazing singing I have ever heard and was absolutely and wonderfully
raucous I was reminded again why I'm on the path that I'm on. I took
some photos to remind myself one day, should I ever be involved in a
church redevelopment project in the UK, that God can just as well be
sung to in a multi-purpose brick shack as he can a grand cathedral.
Somehow being there brought me back to the heart of the matter, what
I'm doing this all for. For that joy, that love of God that is
greater than any theories or styles or buildings.
That
evening we went to a Christian youth event called Fusion at Chengelo
School. With about 1000 young people and a fantastic band made up of
teachers (you would not BELIEVE these people were teachers, the kids
were cheering like it was Will.I.Am up there!!) the place was
absolutely buzzing. In Africa singing to God is not a stand up sit
down affair. You use your whole body and no more so than at a youth
event. They had us spinning around, dancing to the corners of the
room, cheering, singing to our neighbour. My pride in our team
swelled to new proportions when one of their dance moves swept the
room mexican wave style and had the whole room going!
Our
team sang some songs and performed a drama and short talk which went
down an absolute storm. There is something amazing about teenagers
talking directly to teenagers about life and faith. Being a Christian
teenager in the UK isn't easy, you are automatically different at a
time in life when you just want to fit in. It takes courage. Watching
them speak and perform with such sincerity and in a way that moved so
many people was another hugely pride-making moment.
When
we returned to Ndubs that evening an even bigger challenge was
looming, Mount Mumpu. Yes dear blog readers THAT part of the trip.
More on that coming up......
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