AGEMPEM 50th anniversary

The Grand Chorale made up of choirs from several churches.

In September, the Malian church celebrated the 50th anniversary of "AGEMPEM", the "Association des Groupements des Eglises et Missions Protestantes Evangéliques au Mali", which loosely translated is the Association of Protestant, Evangelical Missions and Churches in Mali.  AGMEMPEM was formed in 1963, just 3 years after Malian independence.

What a joy to be back here for a trip that coincided with this event. And it was a joyous time with lots of singing and dancing.

At right (on the front of the stage) you can see the banner which cites "50 years of service to God, to the Church and to the Nation.

In the video below, you can see the choir. I thought the choreography looked somewhat like they were treading water.

The clip below shows the choir performing a special Hymn or Anthem written for the 50th anniversary. The sound quality is not so great, but it really was a beautiful song, sung in Bambara.

One of the nice things about any major African event is that they have special cloth made up and everyone gets outfits made out of it. You can see a close up of the AGEMPEM 50th "pagne" (left).

It is also interesting to see how the women each use their creativity to design their own outfits. Some add in colored panels, or embroidery or colored ribbons, each to make a distinctive style. You can see some examples in the picture below of the women's choir. 

The Palais de la Culture was packed out for this celebration. And the singing was quite lively as well in the stands, as you can see in this video.  You might recognize the song, which is a translation of "Bringing in the Sheaves".   Even those hymns translated from English can be very lively when sung in Bambara.

One of the speakers challenged the crowd with the next 50 years. He said that we should work so that there is no village in Mali where Jesus is not known 50 years from now. And he painted the vision of a 100th anniversary celebration that would be WAY too big to hold in this hall, the biggest in Mali. 

The song below shows a bit of symbolic harvesting of corn with scythes.  The harvest is plentiful.

There was a speech by the representative of the church in neighboring Guinea and a series of prayers by the 5 Pastors below, who prayed and thanked God for the missionary pioneers who came to Mali beginning in the 20s and 30s, for Malians who had pioneered with them, for the Word of God, for the protection of the Church in the North of Mali during the recent troubles, for successful elections and for ongoing Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace (as seen on the banner in the back).

 There was also a message given by someone from the African Evangelical Alliance. Unfortunately, I had to leave before that.

One thing that is great to see in Africa is spontaneous dancing. These women below jumped up from their seats and danced around in a circle just in front of us.

May God continue to grow his Church in Mali and around the world!