Outreach in Pemba

Last night we went on outreach to a place 6 minutes away from my house - I've never been there before - its a village just off the main road, in a fairly muslim area. For some random reason we left the base at 3:30pm... arriving at 3:36pm, and considering that the sun only sets at 5:30pm we had some time to kill! I sat in my car and studied for my upcoming exams while waiting for the sun to set.

Finally its time, and the guys get everything set up real quick, too quick actually cos we had to play the swahili dancing music for about 25mins before it was dark enough to start the film.

Its Ramadaan at the moment, and one of our student pastors came to me and excitedly informed me that he had stationed 6 other pastors around the generator, because there were banditos in the city and they could easliy take off with the generator. I thank him, and then he adds, "...and usually, here in Pemba city, after the movie, the people like to throw rocks at us. But its OK, because God is good!" *gulp* OK.

I had set up the sound desk and media player in the back of my car - it makes it easier to look after it, and also gives me a comfy place to chillout while the movie is going. I usually sit there and study, or if I have a good book I sit and read.

The movie ends and I look around at the crowd to see their reaction - ready to throw the equipment into the back if they got violent, but thankfully nothing happened. It was a very 'hard' area, the people were not very receptive - although I did see one guy wearing a skull cap put up his had for salvation. Awesome!