Send Forth

As I was going through photos, I realized that I had never blogged about an opportunity we had a month or so ago.  Our family was invited to attend a Send Forth, which is a Nigerian celebration that happens when someone is going away.  I guess it's sort of like a goodbye party, but with a church service sort of focus.

This one was for the man who was Ryan's first language helper when we got here.  This man has been pastoring a village church in the area for the last 19 years.  He has just accepted a pastorate at a larger church in a city north of here.  We were sad to see him go, especially since he is moving to an area where our Christian brothers face much  persecution.  However, we are excited to see what the Lord will do through his ministry there.  He is such a sweet, humble man who has a heart for those who don't know Christ.

We didn't really know what to expect, so we just went with an open mind.  It was a little bit of a long morning for the kids, but it was a great experience.  Fortunately, we went with a friend who has been in the country for about 15 years and she was wise enough to convince me that we needed to sit by a window.  About 2 hours into the service I was very thankful that I had listened to her.  Let's just say that those Nigerian outfits with a head wrap on in a church that has about 3 times the people that an American fire marshall would allow can get a little warm!

However, the spirit of the people and the whole experience made the heat and the length worthwhile.  After the service ended, we were whisked into the pastorium where they fed us.  That's one thing that takes some getting used to.  There were at least 100 people eating on the church grounds, but we were isolated to the pastor's house.  I know it was meant to be an honor, but it would have been really nice to get to talk to some of the Nigerian folks.

Here are the WMU ladies singing.  For those of you who weren't raised Southern Baptist, the WMU stands for Women's Missionary Union, and let me tell you... they are alive and well in Nigeria!  The purple and yellow fabric is the official WMU fabric for the convention.  Here, the different churches and even the ministries within a church will have different fabrics.  For example, the lady in the light blue is wearing the Baptist Pastor's Wives Fellowship fabric.  They even make fabrics for the various political candidates.  Ladies, can you imagine wearing Mitt Romney's portrait on your hiney?

The view out of our window.  

Beautiful!  I think she was as hot and tired as I was at this point!

Here is a line of ladies going up to present their gifts and offerings.  They gave money, groceries, fabrics, household goods, one even carried in a gigantic trashcan.  The different groups of the church came up one by one to present their gifts.

Here are the pastor and his wife standing at the front to receive the gifts as each group comes.