Regional Service - Kigali - October 14/12

Sunday, October 14th, 2012 marks the first time that Daddy preached in Africa!!!  This weekend was the regional service for "our" region in Kigali.  So, while we didn't have to travel to get to it, Dad did have to get a sermon ready! :-)  It was held in behind the church, in a school yard area.  It was sunny for the first few hours of it, and as a result both Mom & Dad got sunburned.  Caleb and I weren't in the front row, so we escaped!

As always, there were lots of choirs eager to present their songs:

This is our region's, Kacyiru's, choir, so we actually know a few people in it:

They had a keyboard, drums, and couple of guitars rigged up to a sound system.  Here's the tower of speakers!!

 

After being played for a while, the drums started falling apart (not
that they were together too well at the start!).

A little sound guy.

As more people arrived, they started bringing some more benches out.  Here's a couple of boys helping out:

Lots of umbrellas were out for protection from the sun!

A special part of the service was that a brass brand from Congo came to play for us!  It sounded really good, and Caleb really enjoyed watching the 3 trombone players!

Here's a picture of all the regional pastors:

Daddy preached on having hope during difficulties or tragedy.  There were lots of people who wanted to take a picture (or video) of Dad preaching...and there aren't the same cultural norms as to when and where you stand to take a picture (it was the same in Indonesia), so they'd be right up in Dad's face practically!

Those of you who are used to Dad's preaching will be glad to see that his use of props has made the journey with him to Africa:

As Dad's was preaching, the clouds came rolling in...

...and after he was done, as the business part of the service was going on, the rain started coming down!

Everyone scrambled to get our of the torrential downpour, and some men desperately tried to get the electrical stuff carried in or covered up (I guess the drums were the exception):

One bonus because of the rain was that the brass band played us some more impromptu songs:

A few other pics:

Now, to close off this lengthy post, a picture of my beautiful mother, all decked out in her Rwandan garb!  Pastor Andre's wife said that whenever her husband preaches, she dresses in tribal clothing, so she thought since Dad was preaching, Mom should wear tribal dress too!