Ridgell's Originals

I am now back in the country and even in town for a few weeks. After the Cuba trip, I had a wedding in the Metroplex and then it was off to Malawi for a week of evangelism and meetings. Got back and had to preach last Sunday at Southern Hills. Now HIP is starting. Well at least life's not dull.

The Africa trip was great. Over 1000 at the church meeting out in one of the villages. The men sat in chairs on one side and the women sat on a huge tarp on the ground. Interesting. The other interesting thing was to witness the worship. The Malawians I know are very into singing. I have been at youth events where they "dance before the Lord". Very happy, very into celebrating worship. But not at our church gathering. Evidently some early missionaries convinced their early converts that they needed to sing praise like we did in the States...in the 50's. Interesting. Some are ready to go off on how we inserted our culture into a mission work and probably created some issues. And that is right. But would these same people want to change the seating arrangement of the men and women? And would that create some issues also? Would that be inserting our culture into a mission field?

So again I say... just preach gospel. Death, burial, and resurrection preaches and fits into any culture.

By the way, the elderly ex-chief of the village slaughtered a beef for the fellowship meal. I got to be his honored guest for lunch. Very interesting. No utensils. More interesting.