In Psalm 149:3, David writes “Let us praise His name with dancing and make music to Him with tambourines.” This weekend I was given several opportunities to really see this put into practice. I have known that in the African community dancing is an important part of worship, but this weekend I saw how this stems from an incredible rhythm possessed by all of the men, women, and even young children. To witness them praising the Lord with these gifts brought chills to my spine several times this weekend.
On Saturday, I went with a group of people to the prison in Cotonou. Every Saturday a group of Mercy Shippers go to fellowship with the inmates and bring the joy of the Lord into the dark and depressing place. In Benin, the legal system is totally corrupted, causing great despair among the prisoners. The court claims someone guilty until they can prove themselves innocent in trial, but no one cares to put in the time or effort to arrange a fair trial for every person convicted; therefore, of the 2,000 prisoners in the Cotonou prison, less than 500 have had a trial. All it takes to be thrown in prison is one person’s complaint to the police. It could be years before the person is then given the opportunity to prove his or her innocence to the court and thus be set free. Because of this reason, many of the people in the prison are angry, bitter, and hopeless about their situation. When Mercy Ships comes into the prison, our group is divided up and sent with three different groups of people: one with the women and children, one with the teenage boys, and one with the men. I chose to go with the women, the most bitter group of them all. In previous weeks, the groups have led a worship service among the women, but there has been such a presence of animosity and spiritual oppression that the services could not continue because no one would participate. Instead, we each went off and talked and prayed individually with the women. My friend Chelsea and I sat and talked with a woman named Mme Marco for nearly an hour. Mme Marco spoke no English, and Chelsea spoke very little French; therefore, I had the most difficult time in the conversation, attempting to translate for both. She shared with us her story of how she came to be in prison after being unjustly accused. She said that she is supposed to be released on Friday and will go home to work in the boutique she owns with her daughters. She gave us the phone number and address of her shop, and Chelsea and I plan to visit her soon. Although it is quite possible her story of innocence is not true, Chelsea and I plan to visit her shop and continue get to know her.
After our long conversation with Mme Marco, Chelsea and I joined a couple other friends in a small room with a teenage girl, a couple young mothers and their children. Even through the language barrier, we were able to laugh and talk for a long while. They began to compare each of us to a celebrity based on our hair color. After informing my friend Bonny Jean that they thought she looked like Celine Dion, they asked her to sing. Thankfully, she and I knew a few African worship songs which we began to sing for them. They got so excited and began to sing and dance with us! It was incredible to see how even in the dark hopelessness of prison, these women found joy in worshipping the Lord with us!
On Sunday, I attended church at the Hospitality Center, where I sat with a little three year old boy who had had surgery on his right hand. Before the service began he had snuck a small instrument and brought it to his seat to play. The instrument was a gourd covered by a beaded netting, a popular instrument found all over the streets here. After returning to his seat, he showed me the instrument and began to play it in perfect rhythm! Because of his cast, he could not play it against his hand as it is normally used, so he instead beat it against his little arm. Once the whole congregation began to worship, he then stood up on the bench and began dancing! He danced perfectly to the beat of the music, closing his eyes and just feeling the rhythm with his whole body! Everyone around me stared in amazement at this little three-year-old dancing and praising.
Later Sunday evening, I attended the worship service held on board the ship. A group of African girls performed a few for us in the service, where I was yet again amazed at their ability to dance. The group contained about twenty girls ranging from about five years old to fifteen years old. They performed three dances for us as a thanks for the work Mercy Ships is doing in their country. While their steps were not complicated and their form was far from perfect, I remained completely awed by their incredible ability to feel the music. Every one of them, all the way down to the five year old girls, moved every inch of their body perfectly in time with every beat of the music – just like the boy in church and the women in the prison.
I am continually amazed at how dance and worship are integrated into every fiber of the people here. While I have witnessed their dancing and worshipping the entire time I have been here, it did not strike me until this weekend how incredible it is that God has blessed them with such an amazing gift, and that they then use the gift to praise Him with all of their hearts. By expressing their emotions through dance, their love for the Lord is so visible. How incredible would it be if we could all daily display such an open and joyful love for our Lord on a daily basis, whether at home, work, school, or sports? A love and joy not hidden by insecurity or fear of looking different, but a love that is expressed by praising God with the gifts and talents He has bestowed upon us all as His children?
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