23 Mar 2025

Saturday was largely uneventful.  I spent the better part of the day watching preparations for the big Birthday party, that sadly was rained out for the whole school.  However the cake seen in the photo ended up being served at supper to all the students in Ndalani.  Normally they would have come into the inner square to celebrate and receive the cake.

I worked on organizing the many testimonies I had, paid all my bills in Canada, including the dreaded property tax.  Then I set off in search of students and was befriended as usual by a couple of students who were thrilled to tease me into singing along with a real singer from the Mission choir.  I warned them about nightmares after hearing my feeble attempts at singing.

At the biological family gathering to sing happy birthday and watch the cutting of the enormous cake I hung way back, being afraid to intrude into the gathering seen in the photo.  Most of  Esther's and Charles' children, spouses and grandchildren had gathered.  After the speeches, Dr. Charles surprised me by asking me to pray over the cake, which humbled me.  After the grace, mother Esther invited me to sit with them at their table.  I was again surprised by the trust and affection they have placed in me.

After supper I headed over to the chapel to discover everyone watching TV the news and then some shows produced in Japan and something in Kiswahili.

I headed back and discovered the Mission choir had started a concert for the guests from Utah, which included an African (Kenyan) who had once sung in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Concerted was superb, with the finale being my two favorite pieces and a piece in which the audience is pulled out to dance with choir members.  The size of your heart is the size of your life, and the Lord is my Shepherd filled the soft night semi-darkness which such love and passion it penetrated deeper into the soul than one can imagine.  Certainly it was a mystical moment when the skin between heaven and earth thinned for a suspended uplifting period of Kairos time.  One experienced the divine presence wrapped like a loving safe blanket around one's own soul.

Wow tonight's concert was fun, powerful, and gave me goosebumps even tears.  Tonight the choir filled the night air with freedom, energy, joy, ansd kindness beaming from their beautiful faces and open voices.  Their perfect harmonies, theological expression, and exact timing combined in such a way it captures the hearts of the audience.  Gob-smacked isn't strong enough a word to describe the impact.  A couple of very touching testimonies thrown in, and the audience became one with the largest family in the world.

Dr. Mully asked me to offer the closing prayer and blessing, which I was deeply touched to do so.

I cannot but reflect that such intense beauty found in each of these days cannot be as one would say "hidden under a bushel basket"; it must be shared.  The light that shines from these proceedings has the beauty that compels the muse behind these notes.  Good night!