Worship

The Zambians worship the Lord in a way that it powerful and unashamed. The reason why is because of the music/voices, and their passion and gratitude that they have for what God has done for them in their lives. While I was in Zambia, I would compare a Zambian worship service to a worship service here in the United States; I pray that everyone will be able to experience worship like I did while in Zambia. The people there dance and sing with all of their hearts. I truly believe that life is a dance unto the Lord, and that is exactly what they were doing; they are not ashamed of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, each one of them is blessed with beautiful voices that are sweet to my ear as they sing the songs in English with their Zambian accent. For some reason, most Americans do not dance down the aisle or lift our hands in worship. I think that people are sometimes afraid to worship God in the way that they want to because they think about what other people think too much.

Another way that they worship is by praying. At the first church service that me and the rest of my team went to, there was a time when all of the people in the church started to pray out loud at the same time. I was caught off guard because I had never heard anything like it before; there were about forty people all praying at the same time. Of course, I prayed in silence because that is what I was used to, but I continued to just listen to what they were praying about. Each person in that room was not praying self-righteous prayers, but prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving. The people were not praying for healing, money, material things, but for the grace that God has given them and the new life that they have in Jesus Christ. This sound will forever be ringing in my ear as I look back at the time that I spent in Zambia.

Unlike the Americans, Zambians search for the Lord in a way that is very different then we do. Every time that I talked to a Zambian they mentioned how good God was at least twice during the conversation; how many times a day do you think or talk about God? In addition, most of the Zambians are not blind to the blessings that God gives them each day because they do not have as many material items that we do here in the United States. They recognize that one meal a day is a true blessing.

Since Zambians seem to be more grateful for things than Americans, it makes me think about all of the things that I "want" but do not really need. Let me just say that this missions trip changed the way that I think about everything from politics, wealth, materials, God, etc.