The Best and the Worst

Yesterday I found my favorite place in Sierra Leone. It goes by the name of Charlotte Falls and it an hour outside of Freetown. Everyone was planning on going to a ritzy beach when it clouded up and those plans were shattered, so faye offered to take us to the falls- which i was definitely in for.

Our taxi driver was a whiney little man who kept trying to change the price but I was thankful for Faye's persistence in refusing to back down. We drove over Leicester Peak and beyond into the Peninsula mountains about a couple of miles, got out and hiked for maybe fifteen minutes. Being out the city and in the mountains was the best. The air! It was so fresh and green smelling, it was almost as satifying as sleep! I drank it in as we hiked through the jungle with the sound of pounding water growing ever louder. The Falls themselves were beautiful (I'm sure Erik will post pictures on his blog soon) and we spent some time slipping on the rocks and swimming in the chilly pools all while it drizzled slightly and the clouds kept the oppressive equatorial sun at bay. It was beautiful and glorious.

Coming home was mostly uneventful. We played with Remie and Saidu at Cami and Faye's then I went home for fry-fry (one of my favorite local dishes) and bed early. Thank the Lord I went to bed by 9 because the two hours of sleep I got after that were all I would get last night.

Nissi Ministry is a Pentecostal "church"* right across the street from us, a mere 15 yards from my bed. They are boisterous and in typical Sierra Leonean fashion, love to blow out speakers as the sing and preach. The lower volume levels mean nothing in this country. We can usually avoid their screeching by going out at the right times of the four services a week, but every now and then, they surprise us. Like last night at 11 PM when they began their prayer service. It lasted, non-stop, until 5:30 AM. I wish so much that I were exagerrating.
What bothered me more than the time and the volume was their message. I heard five sermons last night, interposed with wild singing, imagined demons cast out, and sporadic wailing but each of the sermons had this general message: "Believe in Jesus and He will give you cash! Use His name in the right way and you can scatter all your problems by fire! Scatter by Fire!" This last sentence was our good preacher's main point, and he made that known to us by the tried and true method or repetion and reiteration.

Needless to say, I was angry. I couldn't sleep, so I stayed awake critiquin the sermons, reading and planning to head over there to give them a pievce of my mind. I mercifully decided against it and in the morning light, I'm glad I saved my self a potentially cultural misunderstanding.

Overall, it was a very strange juxtaposition of highs and lows all in a span of ten hours. Oh Lord, what are you preparing me for now?

* For the record, I have nothing against Pentecostalism or their excited style of worship. When truly in the Spirit, I find it wonderful and amazing. I believe Discovery Church that I attended in Ireland was a fantastic example of this as was Greg Campbell our speaker at Lighthouse a few weeks ago. But I also believe that the hype has been widely hijacked by emotional manipulation schemes and the unfortunate partner of prosperity gospel. The ministry across my street fits both of these bills. If you keep me awake all night to actually worship Jesus, I can forgive you, but to shout out lies and revel in it, you've found a recipe to make me pretty angry.