Americans write and sing some good ballads. We have some good slow, reflective songs, and we sing many of them in our worship services. Africans, on the other hand, know how to get you dancing. You hear the beat of the drum, and you really can't help but move your feet. Forget slow and reflective. They know how to celebrate. Of course, the services are longer, and much more energetic than at home (at least in our fairly subdued Wesleyan Church), but the thing that most foreign to me in their worship service was the offering time. If any part of the service feels like a celebration, it is the offering time. There must have been some sort of order to it, although I couldn't tell how people knew, but the drums began, and soon the whole congregation was singing, and a line formed in the isles, as men and women, young and old, danced their way in a line to the back and on to the front where they deposited their gifts into the containers held by a number of ladies standing at the front. It was hard to believe that everyone could be so cheerfully giving, but if it was an act, it was incredibly well rehearsed. For 10-15 minutes during each service, they celebrated their gift of life, and their ability to give.
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