Sundays with No Church

When I'm home in Houston I love going to my church on Sundays.  Here in Musoma Sundays are an ongoing experiment.  Occasionally I visit a church here, but the cultural, social, and language barriers turn the experience into more of a field trip than a time of worship, fellowship and learning.  Plus, I generally make it to the weekend exhausted & in need of refreshment.  A long, physically and emotionally draining outing does not sound like a great idea.  So how does one celebrate the Lord's day at home alone?

There are many possibilities, certainly.  I'm writing because I have just enjoyed a very nice Sunday, and I'm thankful.  So to share my joy...

First of all, I must admit, I celebrated by not setting my alarm clock last night. :)  With inconsistent sleep during the week, I savor the chance to catch up on the weekends.

Once awake and breakfasted, I was ready for some special Sunday activities.  Not long ago I came across an interesting resource: an NLT Bible that comes with liturgical-style readings and meditations from believers of different times and places, called The Mosaic.  My church background didn't involve liturgy, so to me it's fascinating.  When I read about this book online, I thought it might be just the thing for my own little Sunday worship times.  I couldn't exactly run out to my nearest bookstore to buy it, but I could download the Lent portion, thanks to Amazon's kindle store.  (I don't own a kindle, but short entries like this I can read off my computer screen.)  So today I looked up the week's Scripture readings, read the meditations and prayers, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I read much of it out loud, in order to focus my attention and break the silence.  Doing that seems to make it more substantial, more real.

Afterwards, I looked up a sermon online.  (Last week I was unable to do this because I ran out of internet credit.  Today I was exulting in my new internet access plan--which not only works most of the time, but also gives me a lot more data, and is not dependent on electricity!  My power was off most of the day.)  I often listen to sermons from my home church (see CorkinGoodSermons.com, available through iTunes), and I also sometimes mix in a few messages from Jon Piper's Desiring God ministries.  Today was a Piper day.  In fact, I ended up listening to two sermons.  (That came about in a funny, accidental way but doesn't bear explaining here.)  Meanwhile, I found that I could download the ESV Bible for free(!) with the kindle program--very convenient to have on the screen while I listened.  Anyway, I reveled in the preaching of John 7.  Hooray for Bible teaching!  It is such a treasure.

To round out my time, I chose some music to listen to.  Something God-centered and encouraging.  My frequent choices these days are David Crowder's Church Music and Switchfoot's Hello Hurricane.  Today I picked the latter.  It's such a good album, so many winners.  I hear a song and think, "Oh yeah, this was the good one," and then the very next song is like that, too... and the next...!

While I listened to sermons and music, my eyes and hands were busy.  I like to have something for them to do while my mind processes what I'm hearing.  Today I was coloring!  I used to get out these "coloring books for grown-ups" (my designation) often, but the new one I brought to Tanzania with me has waited until now.  There's something so satisfying about watching the ink from my markers gradually fill the little spaces of a Celtic-inspired design.  (Mindware makes the coloring books, in case you're curious.)  I'm no artist, but I do think that the beauty of line and color is a gift from God.

I didn't spend the entire day at home by myself.  My teammates Alison and Ellen invited me to go to lunch with them after their church.  We had a very nice time at this little cafe on the lake, chatting and waiting for the food.  Turns out their church service went much longer than expected, so we didn't get to the cafe until around 3:00!  Although they were positive (overall) about going, I couldn't help but be glad for the way I had spent the previous 4 hours.

Thank You, Lord, for the good day spent with You!  Help me to now be ready for Monday!