Cultural Worship Services

Hope everyone is doing great. I’m in my fourth week in training which is crazy because it feels like I just arrived. Everything’s really going well, really enjoying the classes. The foods not amazing but it’s digestible. So far we have had two cultural worship services which are some of my favorite times. The first worship service was to represent a house church in China. We removed our shoes and went into a smaller room packed with people. Everything was in Mandarin. We sang songs, had prayer, and heard a message all in Mandarin. The whole atmosphere was really amazing. This past Sunday night we had a worship service representing the Sub Saharan Africa. The room was divided into two. One side was the ladies and children, and the other side was filled with the older men in chairs and the rest of us younger guys sitting on laid out blankets like being outside in the grass or dirt. The ladies all wore a head covering and a long skirt while we wore long pants and a long sleeved shirt. The service was conducted in Swahili as well as other local languages.

I just love the whole experience of worshipping Jesus in different ways. If I ever get to where I think that I must worship Him with a guitar and drums or some other set way, then I’ve got a problem. Any way to praise Him is great: dancing or no dancing, instruments or no instruments. It all doesn’t make a difference. What matters is that I’m giving God all the praise and glory because He deserves everything that I’ve got. I need to not forget that worship is not just a "service" but is every day in everything I do.

Please be in prayer for me this week that I absorb all of God’s truth and all the wisdom that is here to take in. Pray that I have an open heart to everything being taught and that my heart continues to break for the people of Portugal.