Sunday Morning in Livingtone

If you are planning a trip to visit Zambia and you find yourself in Livingstone on a Saturday night and have no particular plans for the next day, let me recommend going to bed early so you will be up in time for an experience unlike any you will find suggested in a travel brochure. I have been taking casual walks and bike rides through the town in the mornings and afternoons when it is cool.  One Sunday morning I happened to choose a route that put me in a neighborhood that had an extraordinary number of churches.

Now it should be said that Livingstone has churches like American cities have Starbucks…seemingly on every other corner, so what I mean by extraordinary is that I passed by 7 places of worship within a few blocks of each other. Some of them were back to back. None had steeples or stained glass. None had any features at all that distinguished them from any other building in Livingstone, which is dominated by cinder brick, cement and local red brick architecture. Many had no walls, but all of them were filled to capacity with the overflow spilling onto the surrounding grounds. They seemed to be competing for God’s attention with full voices raised in praise and celebration. This was the real deal gospel music like I had only heard in recorded form. All of them were blowing the roof off praising God with amplified accompaniment from any number of instruments. To say Africans love music is an understatement. When large groups gather and love it, it is something to behold.

seven churches within a few blocks and the music fills the air