Greetings from Africa!                12 Nov. 2005

The meeting at Ruighoek Presbyterian Church (Pastor Fred’s central congregation) last Sunday went

very well – not, of course, very much according to plan (?plan? what’s that?), but well nonetheless.

The first part went very well, i.e. the drive. It was not a hot day, and there were actually clouds

most of the time, which was very nice. I remembered how to find the building, which was also very 

good. And, we were on time. 

Our arrival was absolutely the last thing that was on time, however. It turns out that they had 

scheduled MANY things for that day, including a big production by the children. The story was that

of the prodigal son, and one youth read from the scriptures (see photo), and then that part would

be acted out. This went on for at least 30 minutes, during most of which absolutely nothing was 

happening other than whispered conversations as people tried to decide who was supposed to do what

next.

There were also many baptisms, the number of which continuously increased after Fred tried to 

actually begin doing it. It seems as though a great many parents decided they wanted to participate

and just neglected to tell anyone. This is a very difficult situation, because they are pretty 

formal about the whole process, with each family being listed by name and then announced. Fred 

finally just invited whoever was there that wanted an infant or child to be baptized to come 

forward. The final number baptized was perhaps 15, with a lot of time and attention spent on each 

one. Fred was very sweet, saying a blessing and kissing each child after the baptism.

Then there was also the year-end confirmation of 11 young people, involving not one but (I think) 

three separate rituals for each youth. One of these involved an older person, generally a parent 

but in some cases an elder, saying something specific over each youth (see photo where a 

grandmother is holding a small candle to give to her granddaughter). This constituted a precious 

opportunity for people to speak in church who don’t often have the chance, and so some of the 

speeches become pretty long and emotional. I couldn’t understand them, since they were in Tswana, 

but I got the feeling quite a few sermons were preached that day. There was also a time when the 

youth knelt and an elder stood behind and blessed them (see photo), which was very nice.

I began my message (see photo) somewhere around 2 pm, after which came various other hymns and 

blessings, all of which took until about 3:00. Then, of course, there was a very official and 

elaborate luncheon for Louise and me at a hack some distance away. The honor bestowed on us is 

almost too much, but the idea is to accept their sweet, sweet gift as sweetly as possible. I don’t

know what this family  usually eats, but I’m pretty sure it is not EIGHT separate dishes, all nice and all abundant. This does not include the three different desserts that were served. These people truly know the joy of GIVING.  

As you might guess, there was no time for the planned  training session, which will now be 

rescheduled for the near future. I did have the chance to speak about the program for a while, 

and almost all the elders and the newly confirmed youth expressed a desire to participate.

I’ll report later how many people actually do. There is absolutely no such thing as too much 

patience in Africa. There is such a thing as too little, though.

While we were away, our friend and congregation member Anne Marie preached in our congregation 

(Philadelphia Ekklesia), with rave reviews by all. This is wonderful, because it really gives 

Louise and me freedom to be away for a weekend from time to time. Anne Marie will become more 

and more of a help for us in all our projects, as she will write her exams and finish her 

theology training next week. 

Another thing I wanted to write about is my increasing awareness of what I call a “spirit of 

neighborliness” here in Pretoria. Louise and I were in our neighborhood grocery store yesterday 

and were greeted by a manager, who asked if there was something we were looking for. We told him, 

and he said he would be happy to order and stock it (if it is available in their chain) just for 

us. Then the other day Louise and I were in a mall and a lady wearing a waitress uniform walked 

by on her way to the restrooms. She stopped, smiled, and asked me why we had been away for so 

long. It seems that we had eaten at her restaurant once or twice some time ago, and she was 

waiting for us to come back. There have been lots of other incidents, such as the local realtor 

bounding into the grocery store to tell us about a house we might be interested in, or the manager

of a restaurant next to the grocery store bounding over several planters in order to greet us on 

the way by, or the manager of a computer store who gets upset if we don’t stop and chat with him, 

or the elderly Chinese gentleman who has a little shop and always gives Louise and me a big smile 

and wave when we pass by. The best one by far, though, is the lady who works in a business in 

Johannesburg we stopped at the other day to get some parts for a machine that did not return with 

the machine after it was leant. Louise was last there EIGHT YEARS ago, and the lady immediately 

recognized

her. Get this – she even remembered what Louise had been WEARING that day – which is almost scary.

The bottom line is that this feels like a town small enough for people to get to know each other. 

I like it.

We hope to finalize our plans for travel to the US very soon, especially because we desperately 

need to. We’ll let everyone know once we know.

     

 

Love from Africa

Lary and Louise