I know that when my Christ is present, human barriers are being broken down

Well, my fellow Episcopalians, I never want to hear any further complaints about the service taking too long -- this morning's first service began at the Ipagala parish at 7 AM -- and we were walking out the door to shake hands at 10 AM. The second service, at a sub-parish called Good Samaritan, started at 11 AM and ended around 1:15 PM or so -- and this was a baptism.

What a day! I was the preacher at both services - I preached in English, but stopped at every sentence or two, to have my words translated into Kiswahili. Again, I provided some comic relief when I tried out a few words on my own. I also got to do something very special-- I got to baptize two baby boys and one toddler (boy) -- amazing. The sub-parish is very small and poor -- the baptismal font was a stool with a tin pot full of water on it -- but the babies were the cutest and the parents so proud and happy -- one of the babies was dressed in a tiny black suit with tiny black wing tip shoes -- he slept even as we transferred him from mama to me, but when the cold water hit his head -- you got it -- just like at home!

The most amazing part of the day was meeting the pastor of these churches -- Mama Mary Kanyamala. She is a robust woman, but not very tall -- but she exudes a mighty sense of love and wisdom -- warmth and energy. She began our time together with a prayer that included all the folks in the altar party -- me, Sandy, my translator, Emmanuel (who is also a priest), the chatechists, Agnes and Barack, and another young woman priest, Violet. She reassured me that although I could not understand her words, God understood them on my behalf - she made me feel instantly calm and peaceful -- at first I thought my stomach was upset for the obvious
reasons -- but after that, I realized I was just nervous -- and all was well. The words of the title of this blog entry come from a prayer that she wrote - which I quoted in my sermon -- she is a living, breathing example of human barriers being broken down -- she is the first woman to be ordained in Tanzania -- in 2000. There are now about 20 women priests in TZ -- and I am going to meet most of them tomorrow, for a day of fellowship and discussion -- and, of course, tea.

The services today followed our same service order -- it was wonderful to be able to participate, even though my pronunciation of the words was horrible! It is very difficult to be in a place where you routinely don't know what is being said -- but the incredible hospitality of the people comes through -- and someone begins to translate for you. The people know all the prayers by heart -- few have prayer books. Sandy McCann was the celebrant -- and did the whole thing in Kiswaili! I got to serve communion -- but had to say the words in English-- too much to commit to memory in a short time to do otherwise. After the service we had refreshments with one of the elders of the parish, then went to a wonderful lunch at Mama Kanyamala's house.

Kate Kennedy wrote to tell me that her kids are reading the blog and enjoy hearing about what I have been eating. So here goes .... I may have already mentioned it, but whenever you go into someone's home to eat, the first order of business is to wash your hands. Warm water is poured over your hands and often there is a kind of soap that feels like dishwasher soap powder. There are often no towels, but it is so dry here, your hands dry quickly. There are also often not any utensils -- Mama said, "in Rome you do what the Romans do -- in this parish, there are no knives or forks, so you do what we do - use your hands!" (This was easy today, but yesterday, with a rice dish with sauce -- very interesting! ) Today for tea, or "chai" as it is called, we had a wonderful ginger tea, bread and butter and hard boiled eggs -- just the right thing (protein) for in between the services on our marathon day. For lunch, we had a feast -- a kind of stew made from beef and bananas and potatoes, green peas in a really wonderful sauce, roasted goat, a chicken dish which I have had several times (in a broth that is made with spices and oil and tomatoes) and rice, rice, rice -- a kind of fried bread called chapati, and fresh grape juice from Mama's farm -- fabulous! Tonight we went to the Dodoma Hotel, and could have our choice of Chinese food, a "bites menu" that looked a lot like what we might get at an Appleby's (sandwiches, burgers, and a cheese omelet burger -- a fried egg with cheese in a hamburger bun), or an Indian restaurant menu -- I had a quesadilla of chicken, cheese and sauteed peppers with a side order of my new favorite, sambusas -- which is a kind of small meat and spice pie, shaped like a triangle, put in fried dough. Also, a nice beer called "Killy beer" ( for Kilimanjaro). You might be surprised to hear that last night we had egg salad sandwiches for dinner - with a little curry powder sprinkled in.

The most wonderful thing about today was to see the deep faith of the people and to hear the songs of the women -- you would not believe the size of the drums these women were using -- huge! One of their songs was about how there are two cars in the world - one driven by Jesus, the other driven by Satan -- and it's our work to choose to get into the right car - the one that will drive us to heaven! Another of the songs was about the strength of women -- "we can preach, we can teach, we can sing, we can pray -- and so we are strong! " This was accompanied by lots of dancing -- but it is not polite for the people in church to join in with the dancing -- they sat like stones, in rapt attention. So I had to be content with just tapping my feet!! At the early service, the music was more contemporary -- but based on scripture -- the 23rd Psalm and the Gospel of John -- and the dancing was energetic - and fast, fast, fast -- like jazzercise!!!

Mama lost her mother this past July -- so the people did a wonderful ritual with her-- they have not seen her since her mother passed (she does not attend the sub-parish very often) -- they put her in a chair and processed forward, all hugging her and kissing her --"giving her a hand of comfort" to let her know they gave their sympathy. She responded with some stories about her mother - and then led them in her mother's favorite hymn. (By the way, I knew two of the songs today!)

I had a bit of homesickness today --thinking about my parish gathered for Mass on the Grass -- but it was a day of such spiritual inspiration and love - I got over it soon!