Day Four or Ahhh.... Weekends....

Today is Sunday, and I am very happy to say, my first day off. What did I do with my free day? While, first I accidently slept in and missed breakfast. (Whoops.) Then I was privilaged enough to attend Ward Church.

Ward Church is the service that they preform in the hospital ward. The room was a mixture of hospital beds and plastic seats, all filled, dispite the fact that we are packing up to leave Benin. Even though some people couldn't even leave their beds, there were still smiles all around. Directly in front of me was a nurse holding the offical last patient of Benin. The patient was a young baby girl, who could not have been a year old. A white bandage crisscrossed her lip where her cleft had been. So young, eyes so brown, she seemed to watch everything with fasination and was calmed by the rapid beats of the drum during worship. I wish I could have know her, but I know, even now, that she is a special girl.

The service was wonderful. The worship was loud and thankful, as a man sang and pounded the drum. Those who could got up and danced for the Lord. How long that lasted, I do not know, but I enjoyed every minute. A lady from the ship gave the messege. She discussed Luke 18 : 9-14, in which is the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. The Pharisee prayed loudly in the temple, saying ''Thank you God that I am so great! And that I am not like those bad people!'' But the tax collector prayed alone, weeping and saying ''God, I am sorry. I am a sinner.''
God doesn't want us to praise ourselves, to look to ourselves. He made us and He wants us to look to him, to ask him to help us at all times.

The messege was so wonderful to hear. When the last of the words had died away, the music began again. A woman came up and said that she had a song she wished to sing. A song that expressed how she felt. She sang and danced and the rest joined in. So touched by God's amazingness, she began to weep, but continued to sing.