{"id":470,"date":"2011-10-07T12:28:55","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T17:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/worldmission\/?p=470"},"modified":"2011-10-07T12:55:13","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T17:55:13","slug":"thanksgiving-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2011\/10\/07\/thanksgiving-harvest\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving Harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharon Davis, Covenant missionary to Cameroon<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sharon Davis (left) with a friend in Cameroon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On September 12, I moved from Yaound\u00e9 (in the Central region of Cameroon) to Bamenda (in the Northwest region of Cameroon).\u00a0I moved from a Francophone region, French speaking, to an Anglophone region, English speaking.<\/p>\n

My first Sunday in Bamenda, I worshipped at Nkwen Baptist Church.\u00a0Nkwen church is a large church with two Sunday services, two mass choirs, the English mass choir and the Vernacular choir, a praise team and several other choirs that sing in various native dialects. In fact, this is the largest building, outside of the Catholic church in Yaound\u00e9 I have worshipped in since leaving my home church of Oakdale Covenant Church in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The members of the church greet me with salutations, handshakes, embraces and smiles.\u00a0I have a smile on my face as I approach the building and walk inside to find the women gathering for our\u00a07:00 am Sunday School, knowing they will greet me with the love of Christ.<\/p>\n

After Sunday School you can see a scramble for our favorite seats to sit in to participate in \u00a0worship.\u00a0This makes me laugh to myself.\u00a0In churches in the States we have \u201cour\u201d seats we sit in week after week.\u00a0Sometimes someone will sit in a seat no knowing they are in \u201cyour\u201d seat.<\/p>\n

Soon the ushers are asking us to move over to make room.\u00a0That means ladies will have to pick up their large handbags and place them on their laps or on the floor.\u00a0Without a grumble we squeeze closer together until we are touching hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder. It makes you understand how comforting babies must feel when they are held close to our bodies.\u00a0You feel the love of your neighbor.\u00a0Here people stand and sit close to each other.<\/p>\n

Coming from the back of the church is the sound of drums, bells, shakers and voices.\u00a0It\u2019s the Vernacular choir marching in.\u00a0Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.\u00a0Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.\u00a0Psalm 100: 1-2.<\/em><\/p>\n

As I look towards the direction of the singing, I can see a rainbow of colors.\u00a0The congregation is dressed in their finest, beautiful wrappers and head covering, suits and dresses all coming to praise, worship and hear the Lord\u2019s words.\u00a0How beautiful is the sight of the saints that have assembled this day. \u201cAssemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so\u201d Deuteronomy 4:10<\/em><\/p>\n

As the collection is taken up, the praise team sings and they are accompanied by various musical instruments. We are reminded that God loves a cheerful giver and we are very cheerful as we form lines and dance up the aisles to the front of the church where we deposit our offering. For the past two Sundays the offering have been different.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s harvest time in Cameroon.\u00a0We have two harvests a year – in June, when most of the fruits are harvested and in September through mid-November.\u00a0In June it\u2019s called the First Fruit Thanksgiving and the September through mid-November harvest is called the Harvest Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

Around the world festivals of thanksgiving were held before and after the harvest cycle to give thanks for a good harvest, to rejoice.\u00a0Native Americans celebrated the end of a harvest season, so did the English, French, Germans and so on. It\u2019s a lot different than the one celebrated in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Here, from the end of September to the middle of November, each Sunday is Thanksgiving.\u00a0We assemble as usual to dance up the aisle and bring our donation.\u00a0What is a little different is that some people bring the fruits of their harvest.\u00a0Ladies carry baskets on their head with dry maize, dry red, black and white bean, stakes of sugar cane, yams, plump colorful roosters and chickens in baskets.\u00a0The bounty of their harvest is presented in thanksgiving for a good harvest.<\/p>\n

In November my pastor and others from my church, Oakdale will be visiting me and they will be here on the U.S. Thanksgiving, just another day in Cameroon.\u00a0That day, I plan to invite my team members in Bamenda to share a meal with my Oakdale family.\u00a0The meal will consist of items from the Thanksgiving harvest of the members of Nkwen Baptist Church.\u00a0Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.\u00a0Psalm 118:1<\/em><\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharon Davis, Covenant missionary to Cameroon On September 12, I moved from Yaound\u00e9 (in the Central region of Cameroon) to Bamenda (in the Northwest region of Cameroon).\u00a0I moved from a Francophone region, French speaking, to an Anglophone region, English speaking. My first Sunday in Bamenda, I worshipped at Nkwen Baptist Church.\u00a0Nkwen church is a large church with two Sunday services, two mass choirs, the English mass choir and the Vernacular choir, a praise team and several other choirs that sing in various native dialects. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,204],"tags":[13,387,34,29],"class_list":["post-470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-reflection","tag-africa","tag-cameroon","tag-culture","tag-missionary"],"yoast_head":"\nThanksgiving Harvest - Serve Globally Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/serveglobally\/2011\/10\/07\/thanksgiving-harvest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thanksgiving Harvest - Serve Globally Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Sharon Davis, Covenant missionary to Cameroon On September 12, I moved from Yaound\u00e9 (in the Central region of Cameroon) to Bamenda (in the Northwest region of Cameroon).\u00a0I moved from a Francophone region, French speaking, to an Anglophone region, English speaking. 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