Village thanksgiving

Sunday, I went to a village about an hour beyond Jinja (which is 1.5 hours from Mukono) to attend a thanksgiving service.  One of my students, David, was the lay reader at this church, and now serves as its deacon, and will soon serve as its vicar.  They have been slowly building the church, and “for some good time” (several years) and were worshipping in the church without a roof.  That meant that prayers began at 7:00am so they could be finished by 10:00am, when the sun was beginning to get hot.  In all that time, David reports that it never once rained during Sunday morning prayers, which is especially miraculous during the rainy seasons.  It reminds me of God making the sun stand still for Joshua while he was in battle – truly God is God over meteorology!

The roof was completely installed earlier this year, and David finally decided to have a thanksgiving service.  I love the concept of a thanksgiving service; whenever someone wants to publically thank God for something He has done, they request to have a thanksgiving.  There doesn’t have to be a lot of pomp associated with it; the priest can just give a short summary of why someone wants to give thanks, and people come up to the front of the church to join in giving thanks, placing their shillings of gratitude in the basket.

Since much fundraising had gone into paying for the roof, this service had to be something.  A guest preacher and choir contingent came from Namugongo, where David did his diploma (similar to an associates degree) studies.  I came from Mukono, and while I wasn’t officially representing UCU, I am a muzungu (one who traveled a long distance, or a white), and that lends a certain je ne sais pas to any event.  I wish it didn’t.  Anyhow.

Now that the church has a roof, the congregation is now fundraising to repair the vicarage.  After the offering, they had the thanksgiving, and then had a harvest celebration, in which members of the congregation brought what they had, mostly crops, to sell.  The proceeds then go towards repairing the vicarage.  And did they bring.  There were seven chickens (one of whom made decent progress towards freeing her bound feet; two others were noshing on the loose maize on the floor), probably 100 pounds of maize, a tray of eggs (30), and I don’t know what else.  David asked that I participate in receiving the thanksgiving, which consisted of receiving bags that were brought, and passing them to whoever was standing behind me to be stacked (and praying that the people with the chickens would give them to David).  When we were done, several people came up and started sorting everything:  all the maize went in a huge bag, all the potatoes together, sugar cane together, eggplant together, etc.  Then the auctioning began.  It was rather impressive, actually.

Another student had accompanied me to the church so I wouldn’t get lost, and he accompanied me to [the nearest] town so I wouldn’t get lost going home.  We were discussing the thanksgiving, and he asked me whether it was appropriate theologically.  Apparently, those who come from the East African Revival consider it to be along the same lines of what caused Jesus to overturn the tables in the Temple courtyard.

I explained to him that part of what got Jesus upset was the outrageous exchange rates for Temple currency, and when I asked whether things are sold at fair market value, he said it was.  For example, one of the chickens went for 15,000 shillings (about $6).  I couldn’t keep up with the rest of it. 

And I’m still pondering whether this is acceptable.  The visiting choir purchased most of the goods, and several eggplants were placed at my feet, apparently a gift from someone.  But the congregation usually purchases everything; my comment was that it was like their own market.  If they’re purchasing, they have the money.  So why go through the bringing what you have and buying something else? 

The eggplants given to me are at the top (even the little green ones; apparently, they're bitter).  The oranges given to me later are at the bottom.

I’m sure some members really don’t have much, and are literally bringing what they have, like the widow in Mark 12:42-44.  I believe, no, I know that God honors that.  As for the parish market, I’m still pondering that.