The Fathers' Day Extravaganza

Picutres: Fufu, a Western African specialty of cassava dumpling and spicy fish stew; Father's Day Party at Mr. Snow's home; Jennifer, my host mom, and me; some of my host family children and friends.

In my first staff meeting last week, we discussed the special preparations for the Fathers' Day service, but I had no idea that Fathers' Day was going to be such a great celebration.

On Sunday, I arrived and sat up front with the choir. I intended to sing with them during the service and thought that I knew the songs which we were going to sing. The service started with gospel-infused praise songs--which everyone seemed to know except me--as a prelude. Then the worship service proceeded as normal with jubilant singing, clapping, and dancing.

The church has a tradition of honoring the "Father of Year" on the Fathers' Day. (And they do the same thing on Mother's Day as well.) Basically, the church has a secret voting process to honor one father for his contributions to the church community and to his family. So this one man, Mr. Snow, was honored, and every single ministry and department presented him with gifts and flowers. The gift presentation took about an hour, and then Mr. Snow gave a short speech. To the congregation's surprise, he invited the entire church to his home for a party.

Then worship continued as usual. Being Presbyterian, I am not used to altar calls and the fiery Baptist preaching style with audience response. And seeing these expectations of worship style, I must confess that I am intimidated when it comes to preaching for this crowd. But we'll see how preaching goes at the end of this week. When I preach, I pray that God gives me courage to speak the truth and to be myself in the process.

After church, my host family, other friends, and I piled into the car and went to Mr. Snow’s Fathers’ Day party. We arrived a huge, walled compound which was on the beach, and I loved being near the ocean and feeling the salty breeze. The house had many terraces, tents, a live jazz band, and buffets of food. From over hearing other conversations, I discovered that Mr. Snow is one of the richest men in the country and is a political figure. I never anticipated seeing this kind of wealth in contrast to the rest of the country and did not expect to attend such an event while I’m here. (The church has a huge diversity of people: some can't read and are just making it while others are well educated, international diplomats.) Since it’s rainy season (which is similar to monsoon season in India), we had moments of glorious sun and pouring rain during the party. It was a lot of fun, and Diamond, my little host brother, is quite an entertaining dancer!

I tried attaching some pictures of host family and me from the party, but the internet is refusing to cooperate at the moment. I'll attempt to post some soon.