Church and a Walk

We woke up the next morning in a leisurely way, our only plans were to go to church in the morning.  The church was not far away probably only a couple of miles away.  We met the pastor at a gas station and he showed us on his motorbike how to get there.  He liked the fact that I wear a suit and go and do my pastoral duties while riding on a moped.  The church was kind of hard to get to and the church was pretty small I believe there was about 30 people there, and it was really more of a shelter made out of grass with a dirt floor and bricks for seats.  There was a mat placed for the children, and because we were the honored guests they brought chairs (on their bikes) for us to sit on.  I could only stand in the middle of the church.

The pastor was very nice Pastor Enoch who did a very nice job on the service he preached in English (I'm assuming for our benefit I'd say only 1/2 of the other people could understand it) and then he did a recap in their native language.  The rest of the service was in Chewa, and he would do a little bit of English to help us along.  The sermon was very good, very well delivered and distinctly Lutheran with a strong emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit.  It was really pretty amazing, I could have preached that exact sermon from my pulpit, it was a Lutheran sermon.  There was communion afterwards Josh and I received it first (honored guests).  He asked me to give him communion, because other wise he only receives communion a few times a year during pastor conference.  The service lasted about an hour and a half and then there were announcements.  We of course were asked to introduce ourselves and I said a few words to the people just talking about how nice it was to be there and to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ together.  After the service he showed us the parsonage that was being built, it is slow work because of funding.  After that we were invited to the chairman's house for lunch.  So we got in the back of the land cruiser with about 10 other ladies from the church (a land cruiser is not so big) and we headed to the house.  We had chicken and nshima, which was very good and enjoyed a nice conversation with the pastor and his wife and the chairman.  It was nice to be in a traditional house even though it was a little cramped.  In the picture you see Pastor Enoch in the suit his wife is next to him with a traditional costume for pastors wives to wear.  And the chairman is on the right wearing the logo of the LCCA their synod in Zambia.  The pastor is washing the chairman's hands, and everyone washed their hands before and after the meal because you eat with your hands.

After lunch we went back to the lodge and got ready to go for a walking safari in the afternoon.  It was a very nice walk out in the bush.  Because it can be dangerous one of the park ranger came along with a big gun and we had our guide as well come.  We saw lots of tracks and droppings and we got a close in depth look at the plants and tracks and we got to see things close up.We saw a few animals but not too many because they are kind of afraid of seeing people walk around, they are more used to the trucks.  We stayed out there until sundown had our G&T and headed back it was beautiful, and yes mom we have seen the southern cross, I try to find it every night it is really cool, and we can see the big dipper and we can see that it is pointed at where the north star should be but we can't see the north star here so it is really interesting looking at the night sky it is like you are on a different planet it is all different.

Well we went to bed and I fell asleep with earplugs in my ears so I missed all the excitement in the night.  Apparently Josh had to go to the bathroom early this morning and he started to get out of the tent and he saw a huge hippo just a few feet away from his tent munching on some grass and he said it was really scary being close to this monster of an animal.  He had to hold it for 30 minutes while the hippo took its time before it left and Josh was able to leave his tent and make use of the facilities.  I missed that whole event but got to hear about it when I woke up.  Those of you who are reading this and know Josh more than me, make sure you ask him about the hippo when you see him.  And maybe tomorrow I'll get Josh to blog about it.

Well the drive home was pretty uneventful except that I broke the view screen on my camera (BOO) but it still kind of works I just can't see for everything that is in the frame, whatever, it'll work until I get back.  And Chris, our host,  had a fever of 102 when we got back, and he is having the symptoms of malaria, he said that it feels just like malaria so he started taking the treatment for it.  So yeah that isn't great our host has malaria.  Well I should get going its late here and I've typed a lot.  I'll post again tomorrow and let you know how our day here in Petauke went.  Bye.