Hallelujah Sunday
Let me tell you about our Hallelujah Gathering. After breakfast Sunday morning about 8:00 a.m., Joel, Lloyd, George and I loaded up half the new chairs in the van and headed for the meeting place. We were to meet the people who made the tent and watch them put it up so we could do it from then on. The tent went up quickly and the ladies began to arrive to decorate the inside and set up the small sound system. George insisted that Daniel have a sound system so he wouldn’t have to “strain” his voice. 
Then we headed back to the house to pick up Nelly, Amma, and the other half of our 40 new chairs. 
The tent looked awesome, thank you precious people of the Village! The thought of being outside in the fresh air and light with room was exhilarating. There was a sense of anticipation that this would be a special day. It’s not every day that you get a new meeting place, new chairs, a guest speaker all the way from India, all on the same day. As people began to arrive, everyone had a big smile on their face.
Then we headed back to the house to pick up Nelly, Amma, and the other half of our 40 new chairs. 
The tent looked awesome, thank you precious people of the Village! The thought of being outside in the fresh air and light with room was exhilarating. There was a sense of anticipation that this would be a special day. It’s not every day that you get a new meeting place, new chairs, a guest speaker all the way from India, all on the same day. As people began to arrive, everyone had a big smile on their face. 
Then we started to sing. The Kenyans know how to praise God. Their praise is not just with their mouths; it is with their entire body. It must have gone on for more than an hour before George and I started teaching. We spoke about how wonderful our Father had been to us and who He has called us to be. At about 12:15 we told everyone to go home, eat some lunch and be back at 2:00 to start the second round of praise, in hopes of Daniels highly anticipated arrival at 3:30. Now, I have still not mastered the incantation that allows you to understand the time warp in other countries. In Africa, like India, if you say you will meet at 2 it really means 3 or 3:30. Add to that, the tendency to be fashionably late, and that would put starting at 4:00 (perhaps this will cure me of my tendency to be bothered by people being 5 to10 minutes late at home). So around 3:30 to 4:00 people began to show up to start the second round of singing. 
Daniel and friends didn’t get there till 6 or 6:30. It seems that road work and taking African “detours” (which can turn into an off road four wheeling experience) had caused them to be so late. From 4 to 6 we sang more songs, listen to testimonies and waited for Daniel. During that time 4 Pastors from various local churches came to generally encourage us and offer their solidarity.
Had they arrived at the time we asked them to, they would have spent half the day waiting. How did they know? What am I missing? By the time Daniel arrived, he was very tired, we were tired and so was everyone else. So after some greetings and introductions we reminded everyone that Daniel would be speaking tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. ?? And get this ….not to be late. Yesterday was sort of like our “coming out” celebration. It gave us a chance to meet new people and “christen” our new tent. Everything seemed to work out and in the end and we had a lot of fun praising God all day. In fact we have decided to call it …..Our Hallelujah Sunday. 
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