Hi all,

Living very far from home (Africa that is) has meant that I have had to scout around for a church that I can most identify with. A church that's close to the kind of church I grew up attending. In my search, I have visited churches based on a number of criteria including the most common nationality of the attendees. I have explored, if you may. I have also accompanied some of my friends to their churches, which has allowed me to intermingle with broadly e.g., Nigerian, Ghanaian,  South African, German, Austrian, British, American and Zimbabwean segments of worshippers.

In the process, I have noticed one thing: A lot of us African women tend to weep a lot in church when we are being 'prayed for' by the pastor, and some of us may literally throw ourselves at the pastor with the strong belief that his act of laying hands on our heads will solve all our problems. Based on these observations, I have started asking myself what God expects from us when we talk to him. I started thinking about how my father would react if I would cry everytime when I ask him for e.g., financial assistance or to share his wisdom with me.

Where do tears stand in our communication with God? Does God expect us to weep? If you feel that you somehoe know the answer please share it, as this could help not just me but a lot more other people out there. Of course, I am aware that we can never fully comprehend God, but surely some of us have a much richer spiritual understanding of, and relationship with him, which may help in explaining things to the rest of us.

By the way this post is not intended for, or related to, my research on brand Africa :-)

"What is a prayer and how do we pray"
What is prayer? this is very interesting and challenging question to answer specially when you look around our society and have listened to different Rev.Fathers, Pastors and prophets, they all have different definition of prayer, but to be a bit in safer side we can answer what is prayer in dictionary definition: "A solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship"

How to pray differ from church to church, Catholic starts by saying: "In the name of Father, of the son and of the holy spirit". While most Pentecostal start prayers saying: In Jesus name. How you go about the actually prayer after the initial stage is subjected to people perceptive of life. But to be in safer side is always to have bible as watch guide.