Aglow with Jesus!
So, I had a fascinating but ultimately exhausting evening...and morning! I went to a 10 HOUR marathon church fellowship meeting with my darling devout Rita.
It's apparently a world wide organization called Aglow, & it sponsors all kinds of conventions/ fellowship worship meetings.
It is 98% women, mostly of a middle aged to elder population. There WERE men there, but out of this vast convention hall, easily the size of two football fields or airplane hangers, I only counted 3 men out of hundreds & hundreds of women all dressed in snowy white turbans & flowing white gowns.
It's quite a remarkable sight, because Ghanan women are so dark & the white sets
off their dazzling smiles & broad faces.
It reminded me once again of the Baiana women in Brasil, only they are VERY VERY strong in their original polytheistic views from Nigeria, where gods w/ same names are still worshipped both in Nigeria & N. Brasil. White shows the Baianas are followers of Oxala, their creator deity.
But these 100s & 100s of women were 1000% Evangelical Christians, who were 1000% for Jesus. They were already chanting & celebrating quite loudly, of course. In true revival style, there was QUITE a powerful sound system, band, organ, etc. ... audible blocks &blocks away!
But wherever it's from, it is a spellbinding sight to see EASILY over 500 devout African Christian women all singing hymns at the top of their lungs. You also have to love a church where dozens of women come with their own lovingly decorated tambourine as well..
Even though I certainly am not a believer, it must be ecstatic for these women to see so many believers, all dressed the same & know they are all part of such a great joyous if not deafening celebration.
So much for that part. After several hours (program started at 8 pm) I was actually ok with it until 1.30 or 2 am. It had gotten quite monotonous, because the preachers (female, of course) kept repeating the same things .... ALLELUIA ALLELUIA, & the crowd shouted along. There were also exhortations to follow Christ, bathe in his sacrificial blood, etc. Ick.
I thought it would be over by 2 or 3 am at latest, but NOOOOO, they kept rocking & rolling till 6 am!! Because so many outright fell asleep , every 10-15 min you had to get up & pace around the entire crowd in a circular motion, much like devout Muslims circling the massive Kabbala in Mecca.
You also had to make donations fairly often....about once an hour. I think doing it once SHOULD be enough. I asked Rita what they did with all that money , but she didn't know .
So in the end, I am glad I went, but 10 hours of deafening babble was too much. Many female preachers were up in front, chanting different things at the same time, each trying to outshout each other.
I just wonder why it waa necessary to have it go on all.night. With so many openly sleeping, what is the point of staying?
I will also never forget this HUUUUGE black.woman in the requisite white dress & turban whose job it was to energetically stride up & down aisles loudly ringing a large cowbell to wake up the dozers. Boy, did she love THAT job!
It's apparently a world wide organization called Aglow, & it sponsors all kinds of conventions/ fellowship worship meetings.
It is 98% women, mostly of a middle aged to elder population. There WERE men there, but out of this vast convention hall, easily the size of two football fields or airplane hangers, I only counted 3 men out of hundreds & hundreds of women all dressed in snowy white turbans & flowing white gowns.
It's quite a remarkable sight, because Ghanan women are so dark & the white sets
off their dazzling smiles & broad faces.
It reminded me once again of the Baiana women in Brasil, only they are VERY VERY strong in their original polytheistic views from Nigeria, where gods w/ same names are still worshipped both in Nigeria & N. Brasil. White shows the Baianas are followers of Oxala, their creator deity.
But these 100s & 100s of women were 1000% Evangelical Christians, who were 1000% for Jesus. They were already chanting & celebrating quite loudly, of course. In true revival style, there was QUITE a powerful sound system, band, organ, etc. ... audible blocks &blocks away!
But wherever it's from, it is a spellbinding sight to see EASILY over 500 devout African Christian women all singing hymns at the top of their lungs. You also have to love a church where dozens of women come with their own lovingly decorated tambourine as well..
Even though I certainly am not a believer, it must be ecstatic for these women to see so many believers, all dressed the same & know they are all part of such a great joyous if not deafening celebration.
So much for that part. After several hours (program started at 8 pm) I was actually ok with it until 1.30 or 2 am. It had gotten quite monotonous, because the preachers (female, of course) kept repeating the same things .... ALLELUIA ALLELUIA, & the crowd shouted along. There were also exhortations to follow Christ, bathe in his sacrificial blood, etc. Ick.
I thought it would be over by 2 or 3 am at latest, but NOOOOO, they kept rocking & rolling till 6 am!! Because so many outright fell asleep , every 10-15 min you had to get up & pace around the entire crowd in a circular motion, much like devout Muslims circling the massive Kabbala in Mecca.
You also had to make donations fairly often....about once an hour. I think doing it once SHOULD be enough. I asked Rita what they did with all that money , but she didn't know .
So in the end, I am glad I went, but 10 hours of deafening babble was too much. Many female preachers were up in front, chanting different things at the same time, each trying to outshout each other.
I just wonder why it waa necessary to have it go on all.night. With so many openly sleeping, what is the point of staying?
Very interesting Faith. I cam across an interesting article that fuerthers the South American and African (west) connection - Africans sailed to the Americans well before Columbus!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lahc.edu/studentservices/aso/bsu/knowyourhistory/10PiecesofEvidenceThatProve.pdf
For some annoying reason, I can't access the article. I am not sure, though, if it was possible for the Egyptians to cross the Atlantic, mighty though their navigating was..
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