The “Forty Days of Focus” project is over, except for a celebration on Sunday. I have been invited to the organizing church (a Dutch Reformed church called “Bergsig”) for the Sunday evening service. The pastor of that church (Rev. Attie Nell) is going to make some sort of announcement about upcoming things that can be used to continue the spiritual momentum gained through the “Forty Days of Focus” project, including my “Fresh Bread” course. It seems as though 20-30 people from the Methodist Church are planning to attend, and after Sunday the final number could be higher still. I’ll keep everyone posted.
The small group at the Methodist Church that has been meeting on Wednesdays seems to have really come to life, so many if not all are planning to start coming here to the house for our Monday evening gathering. We are planning on all going to a provincial hospital (= hospital for the poor; people with enough money NEVER go to those hospitals, and their reputation is not entirely undeserved – six tube-fed babies just died in one of them the other day from contaminated IV nutrients) on Wednesday to pray for the sick and dying. Such a hospital has many patients who are in fact dying just now, so to bring such a one to the Lord is actually to snatch them out of the fire. Then a week from Wednesday the whole group is coming here just to barbeque (called “braai” here) and fellowship.
Rev. Nell also is involved in a number of projects to work with the poor in the area, including the training of black pastors. He has promised to take me to see some of the projects in the near future. Again, I’ll keep everyone informed.
Since I’ve been in Rustenburg I’ve had the opportunity to do a LOT more walking than I was used to in Kansas City. When you have to carry things or it is raining this is not all good, but otherwise there are benefits. My legs are much more used to walking than they were, my belt is in several notches, and my lower arms, head and face are getting quite tan. I don’t even worry about the sun any more – sweat is healthy and is easily fixed with a shower. Praise God for having a shower!
I took my camera to town yesterday to take pictures of “downtown” Rustenburg, but it had a technical glitch and aborted my photo mission. So, since today was wash day, I thought I’d just send some shots of normal life here at the Mission house. Our lawn and garden are taken care of by a fellow who also does our neighbor’s house (Audrey), and Audrey lets him use her equipment to do our house as well. The way it works here is that it would be very unchristian to actually do the work ourselves – there are so many who desperately need to work and need the money, and they charge so little (just over $1/hour), it is far better to use their services and help feed their families. All of this is to explain why the lawn and garden look so nice – Koos (the fellow’s name) works very hard and was here just today (after the rain).
Love from Africa,
Lary
Click on pictures below to enlarge!