Last night, we were told to be ready by 7:45, as church
started at 8:00. So, I was awake by 7:00
and ready by 7:40 or so. We were treated
to a breakfast by the family and were offered a bath as well. Both of us turned this down, even though it
had been three days since we had a bath.
A bath meant washing yourself in a tub of water! Oupa was planning on
picking us up and then we would all drive to the first church plant. At 8:00, we were still waiting. However, we knew we wouldn’t be late for
church, as Oupa is the pastor and it is pretty hard to start without the
pastor. At 8:05, Oupa pulled up and we
crowded into his car. Altogether, we had
six adults and 2 kids in a five passenger car – it was a little bit
squished.
We
then went to Oupa’s first church plant.
This was the second week of this plant.
They had about 25 or so people in attendance (with all but three being
women and children). This plant was in a
small, brick building that previously must have been a car garage. Once the service was done, we took group
pictures, shook hands and then headed to the next church plant. This church plant was in a tin shack and had
about 45 people in attendance. Oupa did
a different sermon for each plant: the first was on the prayer and what “Thy
kingdom comes” means and the second service was on a Psalm. Oupa likes interaction in his sermons and so
quite often he would ask for an answer to a question and many times, he would
say something like “And do our visitors have anything to add?” After the second service, we took some more
pictures (you pull out a camera and everyone wants to take pictures with you)
and then headed to the third church plant.
Oupa was installed in this church plant as an ordained minister last
year and you can tell that this plant understands what it means to be a
Christian more than the other church plants as the sermon was more in depth.
This plant has an actual brick building with a consistory room and a
kitchen. However, it still has an
outhouse. I think this is just regular
for the people living in this area and no one has a regular flushing
toilet. Due to tradition, the men and
ladies sit on the opposite side of the rooms.
All four of us were sitting together, but we were told that we had to be
separated.
Once
Oupa was done preaching, we headed over to his house to have lunch. His wife must have been awake early this
morning as the meal was ready and just needed to be warmed up. It was another awesome meal, with a lot of
enjoyable fellowship. It was then time
to head home. Oupa showed us a
‘shortcut’. He told us that he normally
takes it going 160-180, as “there is nothing on there besides occasional
animals.” Well, we did not go quite that
fast, but my speedometer did hit 150. (I
had to keep up with the guys in front of us, otherwise I would get lost!!!)
We
went back to the farm, had a wonderful, hot shower and spent the rest of the
day relaxing.
This past weekend was amazing and humbling. People with very little money gladly opened
their homes to us and made us feel part of their family. We were able to see that the love of God is
making a difference in these people’s lives amidst all the struggles they
face.
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