last week, i attended the wednesday night service. it was my first wed service so im not sure what they are usually like, but i think this one was a little special. it was a service marking the end of 3 days of fasting that the church was doing (only morning to evening fasting, so they ate dinner). i only fasted the last day - it wasn't even clear to me why the church was fasting, but i had some personal reasons so i thought i could go with it. anyways, wed night was my first time being present during a really charismatic worship time. i'm still not sure what to think about all of it. basically, we had the usual singing and dancing worshipt time. then there was a sermon, which was longer than usual, and all i got out of it was that he was talking about being filled with the holy spirit for about an hour. next thing i know, we are clearing the plastic lawn chairs out of the way cuz things were about to get crazy. there was lots of prayer, very repetitive. and then there was just lots of shouting, wailing, falling on the floor, laughing uncontrallably, laying hands on people, praying 'in the name of Yesu Christo', etc. i wasn't really expecting all of that. i decided to leave about 2 hours into the whole shebang. i figured it was a good time for me to learn how to get home by myself on the dala dala (bus). i made it, successfully - but have felt really confused about the whole experience so far. i definitely know that there are alot of christians who worship in that way, but i've never actually been in the midst of it happening. i don't reallyknow much about it at all except for the one week at capernwray where we studied the person and work of the holy spirit. and i distinctly remember hearing that god never desires for us to be out of control of our own bodies (and also self control is one of the gifts of the spirit, and the people in that room definitely looked a little out of control). anyways, i'm not trying to say that it is bad or wrong or anything. i just am trying to understand. i can't figure out what the purpose of all of that stuff is. what is accomplished by all that hubub? maybe i am asking the wrong questions and it doesn't really matter what gets accomplished. i guess then, is it really pleasing to god? or maybe mainly, is it genuine? is it real? do they make it up? convince themselves? or is it really the power of the holy spirit? hmmm...lots of things to ponder, and no access to any good books to educate myself. again as usual. i would love any input on the topic. gosh, africa is making me do some hard work with all these new experiences. but i'm glad. it's good.