The Galmi Church

Since the hospital has been around for 50+ years there is a Christian church in Galmi. The hospital staff is about 75% christian and 25% Muslim. There are several prayer groups that meet in the mornings. There's one for the missionaries. There's also one for the hospital workers (who are mostly all Nigeriens). Fridays they meet all together. Dr. Sanoussi meets with the surgery team in the morning and prays with them. The medicine physicians and nurses meet first thing in the morning to pray. In Galmi there are two Christian churches side-by-side. They started as one, but then split years ago about something or another. Now they have a good relationship with each other. I've gone to each so far. They're pretty much the same format and everything. One family even has the husband go to one church and the wife to the other. In both churches Men sit in one aisle, women sit in one aisle, and children sit in the middle aisle by age group. They start by singing all together. Then different "choir groups" each take turns singing songs. Kinda like a sing off :) All the songs are in Hausa. Basically the groups are the men, the women, the children and then a co-ed 20-30 yo group. Then they have the offering, and sometimes they all dance and sing their way up to the offering plate. Then they might have a couple different people speak. They'll often times translate the sermon into French (so it takes twice as long). Church usually starts on time at 9a on Sundays and often runs til 12p or later. The missionaries at the compound usually attend one of the village churches if they're not working and then they also have their own service Sunday evenings for about an hour. They also have bible class Wednesday evenings. The church is growing in Galmi, and the current effort is towards training up spiritual leaders. In the hospital there is a local man employed as an evangelist. He goes around and prays with the patients. Also sometimes the physicians will send patients especially to go talk with him. Especially, ones recently/newly diagnosed with terminal cancer.