A new perspective

I was blessed grewing up in an environment where I was able to hear some of the most amazing teachings from men who were so strong in their faith and who taught doctrinally solid and technically refined sermons where they've even mastered the art of being able to turn their notes without you even noticing. Well, being here, I'm getting a new perspective on pastors and church as a whole, in a good way. In order to be a great pastor, you don't have to have a fancy leather bound binder and color coded notes, you could just have a half sheet of paper (length wise) outline and if it runs over, there is a little bit of scotch tape holding the last part to the back of the front of the outline (it's hard to explain, but I hope you get the picture). Jess has become one pastor who I have come to respect more than most people I've met in my life. He gets up there, teaches from his Bible that is duct taped together on his half-page outline and teaches things I've never even thought of before. Jess is only a part of the perspective change though. I realize that it's part of the American culture and there's a difference between Africa and America (no, duh ;) ) but I grew up with nice bulletins, special programs that run the worship slides, cordless microphones, bright lights, fancy graphics, etc... but it's been so cool to be here and experience church in a very humble way. The cat hangs out in the part we actually refer to as the church, the computers we have are dusty and one of them is older than I am I think, but still does the trick, the benches are wood benches with cushions tied onto them, there are wall-mounted fans because there's no such thing as air conditioning, worship is a mixture of Ryan and locals who are just really learning how to play their instruments, and the Bibles that the people use when they come have pages falling out of them, but all that to say, the people still come and are fed verse upon verse line upon line. It's definitely eye opening to see how God works even when the conditions don't seem "satisfactory".