This year, it was noted that there was a convergence of traditions between the Eastern Orthodox celebration of Pentecost and the Western celebration of Pentecost. In recognition of this, Karen and I started the morning off with praying together and saying the kneeling prayers together on our knees. There were three distinct prayers that we prayed. (If you’re interested you can google “eastern orthodox kneeling prayers”.) At 9am, David picked us up and took us to Global Day Of Prayer at the Velodrome Stadium about 40 minutes from Capetown. We were one of the first people to arrive and watched it fill up gradually with more than 10,000 people.
Highlights:
Procession of the nations, each with their flag
Hearing prayer leaders from all the continents of the world praying in their mother tongue
More than 10,000 people kneeling togetherfor one minute of silence
The orphaned children from India interceding for the nationsMeeting people and seeing such diversity of language, culture, and expression
People saying how much they loved our “Canadian accents”!The diversity of music and worship from many cultures
The younger generation leading the way in worship Meeting Joy!!!!!!!!
It was the tambourine that started everything! While Karen was toward the front taking pictures, there was a lady sitting at the end of a row, and instead of clapping, she would use her tambourine. Before leaving to go back to her seat, Karen commented to her how much she liked the tambourine. The woman immediately touched Karen’s arm and asked where she was from. After Karen said, ‘CANADA’, she became very excited and there was an immediate connection – she said her name was Joy and that she was from Nigeria. She also said that her son was in Canada going to UBC in Vancouver. Karen mentioned to her that our community of Gibsons was very close to UBC. Her response to this information was to embrace Karen and ask if she would be her son’s Canadian mother! Then Karen went back to her seat to get personal information and then scoop me up. At the end of the celebration time, we both ran over to her, and Karen introduced me as a second Canada mother and we prayed together, embraced, and exchanged email addresses. Wow, we didn’t see that one coming ;) Later, once the festivities were over, we took the shuttle home and ended up on the bus with a friend. We’d like to introduce you to Raul Sanchez, the GDOP coordinator from Chile!
At 6pm we arrived back at the house, and were invited to have dinner with our host family, Neville, Tracey and their three children. What a gracious and kind family! They opened their hearts and homes to us before even meeting us. We feel like we have made new friends!
Also, an extra delight was to meet their staff, Lulu and Nokey. It was a great day – our plates are so full, so much to process, we had to go to bed! Our blogging continues later!
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