Sabato Njema

Since I have been going to the (let me get this straight), Njiro Kanisa la Waadventista wa Sabato (Njiro Seventh-day Adventist church), I have learnt that "Happy Sabbath" is a universal concept, despite the different languages we might speak. However, here in Tanzania the correct reply to "Happy Sabbath" is "Happy Day." More often you will hear the Swahili version, "Sabato Njema," to which the other person replies, "Njema Sana" (very happy).

You know how at church someone up the front will say "Happy Sabbath" and the congregation will reply quietly; then the person at the front will say "HAPPY SABBATH!"again and will keep going until the congregation responds in an appropriately enthusiastic way? Well, that too as it turns out, is universal.

My first time at the Njiro SDA church was a few weeks ago now. I took a field trip there on a weekday to work out where it was and how to get there. Njiro is the district that I live in and the church is a 20 minute walk and then a 10 minute dala dala ride away. Most of the time I take the dala dala on the way there and then walk the whole way back.

I didn't know what time the church started, so I turned up at 9, only to find that the English service was coming to a close and I was just in time for Sabbath school. I went to an English-speaking class and then was told to go back to the church for the rest of the service. What I didn't realise was that this was the Swahili service! There was almost no room in the church and so I had to sit in the very front pew. No escaping or leaving early when you're sitting in the front! The good part was that I sat next to a nice young man who kindly translated the whole of the service into English for me, although to be honest I still only understand about one word in three.

Since then I have gotten smarter and been there early so I would be in time for the whole of the English service and then left straight after Sabbath school. It's lovely to be back at church after not having been for a while. I hadn't realised how much I had missed it. The music is amazing and I love the thing about Adventists being like a global family - I really do feel welcome there. The first week there I cried because the music was so beautiful and the hymns so familiar and I felt so much at home.

The one thing that I both love and hate is how very Adventist it all is. I could have been in a church anywhere in the world. It made me instantly feel at home and at peace, yet there was none of the African culture left in the service and I found that sad. The African Sunday churches that I have been to here have been very different... so much singing and dancing and clapping and the people's love for God is so very obvious. The Adventist missionaries who came here did a great thing sharing God's love with the people, and yet I wish that they had let the people keep some of their own culture and traditions.

Never mind though - I love the church here very much and look forward to going there each Sabbath. Last week I stopped across the road to take a picture of the church (it looks small, but there must be several hundred people there during the Swahili services) and I couldn't get the "Church in the Wildwood" lyrics out of my head. You know the one that goes, "There's a church in the valley in the wildwood, no lovelier spot in the dale; no place is so dear to my childhood, than the little brown church in the vale." Sure this is no wildwood, and it is not the church of my childhood, but in some ways it feels like it. God is great and I know He's with me all the time, but being with fellow Adventists makes me feel so much more connected to my home and to my purpose for being here.

Here in Tanzania it's Friday night. In New Zealand it's early Saturday morning and within a few hours the Sabbath will roll around to the American side of the globe. Sabato Njema my lovely friends!

xoxo,

-Hannah