First things first- I slept. I slept for nearly seven hours by myself. I'm not sure I've ever been more thankful for such rest. Our cabin doesn't have a port (and therefore natural light), so it's great because your body doesn't know when it's time to get up (especially because of the jet lag!). Consequently, you sleep until you're good and ready to wake up (or are awakened by, I don't know, a ship generator on the other side of the wall. Hypothetically of course). My roommates are a dream- you would be impressed with how clean, quiet, and respectful they are. I mean, really, it's a blessing because amongst the six of us, we work all shifts around the clock. Of course people forget and nobody can be absolutely silent and keep it pitch black, but you won't get any complaints from me.
So anyway, as I walked out of the door this morning, sending up prayers of gratitude for some great sleep, a girl I met last night asked, "hey we're going to church in town, want to come? We leave in twenty minutes- meet at the gangplank." Having missed breakfast (and therefore lunch as well since we pack our lunches during breakfast on the weekend so that the kitchen staff get a break), I grabbed a Pop Tart (breakfast of champions, I know) and headed upstairs. We piled into one of the jeeps and took a fascinating ride through Cotonou into one of the outlying villages- only another twenty minute ride to Nigeria apparently. Benin is surprisingly smaller than what you may think.
I'm a little unclear about the history of the church itself that we went to. One of our interpreters had invited us to it, and one of the nurses in the group has gone several times before. There was some connection with YWAM several years ago, and our translator Jean Claude helped get it started with fifteen people or so, but now it's quite large and has an actual building- no small feat here in Africa. One of the elders was telling us how it was literally built brick by brick over several years as money came in. Each week's donations would go toward cement for a brick.
Benin's Human Development Index (HDI) is 161st out of 179 countries. The HDI is a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (life expectency), being educated (adult literacy, levels of schooling), and having a decent standard of living (purchasing power parity, PPP, income). That anybody, then, would give anything to build a simple brick structure with toilets and electricity blows my mind. It's very humbling. The actual service was overwhelming- colorful, loud, confusing... and long. The service was in both French and Fon, via church translators, then our host translated into English. I'm sure we lost a lot of what was said, but we understood enough. I'm surprised at how much French is coming back- enough that I can usually grasp the basic concept of what is said. The praise was clear regardless of language, though. And the kids who were dancing and singing up front were cracking me up. In my mad scramble for the camera, this was the best shot I could get:
One of the songs sung in Fon was translated by our host, "we are excited for our new kingdom." This Saturday was independence day here in Benin, so I naturally assumed they were acknowledging that. I felt very close minded as it dawned on me that they were, in fact, singing about the Kingdom of God. About how they have it and the joy they have. As we sat there on wooden benches surrounded by orange and blue lizards scurrying about, a cool breeze coming off the ocean, a choir of Beninoise mama's leading the celebration of life enveloping us, I couldn't think anymore. I just sat there with goosebumps, watching the gaggle of boys in front of me poking, teasing, and falling asleep on each others' laps as the joy came in waves through the church. Of course we're celebrating the Kingdom of God.
Afterwards, the church kindly gave us each a coconut split open by a handsome young man with a machete. We all flinched, watching him hack away at them. I was just sure it would end in disaster, but of course it was fine. So we all had fresh coconut juice and then ate the flesh after some more coconut shell carnage. It was really a treat.
All of it.
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