Cultural Worship

Every Sunday night, we have a cultural worship service for all the people here.

I believe I told you about the first one. The entire service was done in Spanish.

The second culture night we had was African. I was in a group with 6 other journey girls, led by a lady who knew a little Swahili, and we sang two Swahili songs.

Here I am in my Africa dress. Our song leader thought it would be “great” if I sang and danced with a baby on my back. One lady who has served in West Africa, had her “real” baby on her back, and it was adorable because she was in a little ball on her back.









Kylie’s American Girl didn’t ball up quite as nicely, for some reason. By the end of our two songs, her doll’s feet had slid lower than comfortable, but amazingly enough, she was in there so well, I don’t think she would have ever fallen out. A lady who had lived in Botswana for 10 years tied her up on me, and she did a great job.

I think I told you about Africa worship in a former letter, so I won’t re-cap. I just found this picture on my camera that Doug had taken, and I thought I’d pass it on.

Our third culture night was Indian. It was a lot of fun. The kids ages 4 and under were allowed to run around wherever they wanted, just like in India…somewhat distracting. The women sat on one side with the older kids and the men sat on the other side, we were all barefoot, and the women had their heads covered. Namaste!

A little 4-year old girl in Karis’ class is going to India, and she let Karis borrow one of her saris. Isn’t it beautiful?




















And I took a brown Crayola marker, and drew “henna” on the girls’ hands.


















After India culture night, we drank chai and ate "digestives" (a cookie similar to what my old neighbor Foza used to give us with her tea).


As a side note, our children study each of the cultures of the kids represented in their class each week.

When Karis studied India, she tried Indian food, and the teacher drew “henna” on their hands with ballpoint pen, and they got to dress up in saris. So she asked me to do henna on her hand for the Indian service (and she wants to get some real henna when we get to Africa ☺).

When her class was dressed up in their saris, they pretended to charm a rubber snake coming out of a basket. We got pictures of all of these events, and we hang them on our bulletin board.





























When Karis studied Spain, her class pretended to be bulls and run through a red cloth. They also tried Spanish food.

Karis’ class spends one week on each country. Caleb, on the other hand, is just reviewing a country a day, and then they will be done.

Monday, they read about Austria and made a mural of the Alps.
Tuesday, they read about China and made a Chinese fish kite.
Wednesday, they read about Yemen and made a Yemen prayer rug.
Thursday, they read about Spain and made a paper fan.
Today, they read about Serbia and made
Uganda must be some time next week.

Kylie is doing a lot of stuff that mirrors the lessons Doug and I are doing, on a lower level. They are learning what the church is, memorizing scripture, setting goals for their first year in country, learning how to share their faith with scripture or storying, trying different foods, and studying different cultures. Each of the students in her class has to be the “famous reporter” from their country and people group and report on it. Kylie will present her report on Uganda on November 18th.

This week, she went on a field trip to four foreign markets in Richmond. Indian, African, Chinese, and European. They had to write down what they saw, smelled, touched, and who they would pray for as a result of what they saw.

We gave Kylie $5 to spend, and she and another girl pooled their money and bought some things that they split up later (and it was not the octopus they saw in the Chinese market). The teachers bought food at each market that the children got to try the next day at school.

Tonight was an Asian culture service. Kylie and Karis joined with other older children to sing “Jesus Loves Me” in Chinese, because in their culture, they like to have children perform. The girls did really well. Here is my first ever video - it's the girls practicing for the evening.

"JESUS LOVES ME" IN CHINESE