Kenya Day 7

After a good nights sleep I got out of bed around 8 and prepared to go to church for the first time. I met Peter and attended his place of worship, which is called ‘Chris Co’. I think there are a number of these churches throughout Kenya. First impressions were generally quite good although it’s difficult to judge initially.

The service lasted three and a half hours, which was long enough when battling the midday heat. The first hour was praise led by the full band and sound system supported by the 8 on-stage singers who had a mic each. Ballywatt would have been embarrassed to see the equipment. Most of the songs were in Swahili so I was unable to sing along, although the odd UK contemporary made it onto the play list.

The praise was somewhat dragged out but in many ways this seemed to be justified by the energy created from the congregation. At a point everyone was performing air guitar and giving high fives. Generally most started to dance and clapping was a prerequisite. It made me laugh but strangely I quite enjoyed it for someone who was never big into praise at the best of times. The church is of course embedded in the charismatic bracket and that sits fine with me as I don’t seek some backward, dead, establishment.

Apart from the praise, everything was spoken in English then translated (this explains to a certain extent the length of the service). During the sermon the constant translation is difficult to get used to and the talk wasn’t in my opinion overly brilliant. Then again I didn’t experience much prosperity gospel, which I had been so keenly warned about and to be honest had anticipated.

After the service I went back to Peter’s for lunch and watched a film. I bought the meat for the meal and it was filling. I returned home and worked on my computer a little, then hit the sack.