Saturday morning praises at the Seventh-day Adventist service

During our first week at the Abigail D. Butcher school we discovered that there are regular weekly church services held on Saturdays on the school premises. The school observes and teaches the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) faith which considers Saturdays as their Sabbath day. After speaking with Moses we decided to attend the service with the intention of conducting oral rehydration therapy workshops with the adults and toothbrushing and hand washing workshops with the children who attended the service. Moses also said he would help us to spread the word to the community about the workshops and ask them to attend.

We were told that the service begins at 9am and arrived on time to find just a few attendees in the congregation. Upon arriving we were warmly greeted by the members who were present, especially the gentleman at the head of the congregation who introduced himself as Fenty and said that he was the superintendent of the church. We were also presented with a black leather-bound SDA hymnal, another smaller, well-worn hymnal with a fewer songs and an international SDA newsletter. At 9:20am Fenty apologized to us for the low attendance and promised that more people would follow later. He then started the service with a beautiful hymn followed by a reading from Exodus 31:1-4. Next he told us a story of a young boy named Mohammed who wanted to go to school but faced several challenges in doing so since there was no school in his neighborhood. Mohammed was then relieved when he found out that a SDA school would be built nearby. We noted that the story had some uncanny resemblances to the story of the Abigail D. Bustcher school! In his sermon, Fenty also spoke of Madieu and how grateful they all were for everything he has done for the school. We smiled to ourselves and figured he may have thrown in those parts just for our benefit! Moses and his son Bai arrived during Fenty’s sermon, both well-dressed in crisp shirts, trousers and ties. In fact, we realized that all members of the congregation were well-dressed, mostly in traditional African garb. We felt quite under-dressed in out T-shirts, jeans and slacks! After concluding his sermon, Fenty then launched into a health announcement. I was surprised by this and realized this meant that the community and the church place importance on health. Perhaps this could even be an avenue through which we can share health information in the future.

Moses giving his sermon

Moses then began leading the service. Like Fenty, he also began with a hymn and I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I knew the particular song, having sung it many times in my own Catholic church in Trinidad. As I sang along with the rest of the congregation, I realized how small our world really is, and how we can all be connected through faith no matter what country we live in. Moses told the congregation that we were friends from America and he asked us to introduce ourselves and explain why we were there. He did not mention to us beforehand that he would do this so we were caught slightly off-guard! Nevertheless we all went up to the front and introduced ourselves and explained that we were there to pass along some health information and do health demonstrations. Moses then read from 2nd Kings 4:1-7 and began his sermon. One of the most striking remarks he made during the sermon was that “faith without work is dead”, which to me meant that you can claim to have faith but unless you perform actions and good works to accompany this profession of faith then you might as well not have faith at all. He also spoke about the Ten Commandments and the “royal law” which was to “love thy neighbor as you love thyself”. After Moses concluded his sermon, he introduced a young man who sang a few more songs and read additional passages. He also gave a sermon, drawing from Moses’ talk on royal law. Fenty then asked if there was any testimony to be given, however Moses suggested that instead of this we should get started with our program for the day. The service concluded at about 11:45, and we went off to prepare for our workshops. By the time that the church service concluded there were approximately 25 members in attendance comprised of roughly 10 children and 15 adults. We assumed then that the children’s workshop would have 10 attendees and likewise that the adult workshop would have 20 attendees. However, we were not prepared for the large number that turned up in each room when we were about to start the workshops! Look out for that story on another blog post!