Church

I had an interesting time trying to get to church this morning. Selona who I met at the Sultan's palace the other day invited me to come to her church. She gave me directions and which dala dala's(public transport) to take and said she'd meet me where the dala dala drops off in Karyako. While I was walking to the market where the dala dala picks up I ran into the cab driver who brought me from the airport to my hotel. So I decided to take a private cab ride. Why not for $2. The problem is he dropped me off on the wrong side of the Karyako. So I waited where the dala dala's drop off until 8:20 when the service was supposed to have begun at 8:00. I realized Selona wasn't coming. So I wandered around the village asking people where the church was. Someone finally showed me where the Assemblies of God church was but told me their service started at 10am. Inside the assemblies of God church everyone who was there early huddeled around and tried to decide where the crazy white girl was trying to go and who would take me there. Finally a young man named Robert recognized the name of the pastor I kept repeating. And walked with me to Selona's church. Whiched happened to be as Robert described it "just a stone's throw away." Thank you Robert! When we got there it was about 8:40 and true to African time the 8:00am service was just starting. I caught the tail end of the pastor chastising everyone for being late. I knew I was in the right place because the pastor was speaking english, but Selona wasn't there. Before the service began I was invited to stand at the front of the church and tell everyone my name, where I'm from and if I was saved. When I said I was born again everyone cheered and clapped and shouted amen. It made me think this is what it must be like when the angels rejoice in heaven every time someone is saved. As the service was ending Selona walks in and sits next to me and said sorry I'm late. How did you find this place? Before I could answer her the pastor asked me to pray for the end of the service. No time to be shy I guess. As everyone was leaving and the Swahili service was beginning Selona gave me directions to find the dala dala home. No more taxi's for me. As the dala dala dropped me off about 5 minutes from my hotel it started to rain. I started laughing. It was only 9:40am what else lay in store for today.