When Love Came Down

So the last time I posted I was telling you about my Christmas Day so far. I also said I would post later with the rest of the details. As today is January 1, 2008, it is obvious that I didn’t. But better late than never…right?!?!

Christmas Eve was spectacular! That’s the best word I can use to describe it. Jiin and I went with Sonya and Bruce and their children to Kampala Pentecostal Church (KPC) for their 5pm showing of their Christmas Cantata. It is something that the church does every year, 3 shows a day for 15 days, with the last show Christmas Eve. KPC is a very large church (1400 cell groups) with at least 4 “churches” that I know of. The Christmas Cantata was at KPC Central in the heart of Kampala. It used to be a theater, so it is massive; the scale of the Orpheum but not so grand. And funnily enough, the head pastor is from Alberta and the Worship Pastor is from Toronto. My friend Downie Mickler (her husband used to work with FH Uganda) is friends with the Worship Pastor and his wife, who also happens to be the KPC Choir leader. Downie arranged for us to have the entire second row reserved as we had several families attending together.

Right from the start you could tell this was a big production. There wall in front of us has a large screen in the middle, and all around the screen the wall was painted with an African sunset scene, complete with the silhouettes of elephants and giraffe. It was stunning. There was a complete band, with the drummer sitting behind plexi-glass to mute the sound. When the lights came down, the choir came in, and in, and in. It was at least a hundred person choir. The women were dressed in zebra patterned tops and black skirts with white trim on the bottom. The men were dressed in traditional Ugandan dress: black pants, white long robe and black suit jacket. And then the show started. There was a narrator who kept the show going and little movie clips on the screen, and an enactment of the nativity in the corner. But the singing and the dancing…it gave you chills. It was phenomenal, stunning, and electric. The choir was perfect and the dancing amazing. When the show ended two hours later, I stood up, looked at Sonya and told her,” I don’t want to go home now next Christmas. I don’t want to miss this!” (Don’t worry…I’m still coming home)

And that was Christmas Eve. Jiin and I came home, had a friend come and visit then off to bed. It was a great Christmas Eve, my first in Africa.