Off Day at the River

On December 3rd, which was really our day off, most of our team walked to the river to swim and do some hand line fishing. On our way we met someone who really stuck out in the crowd. A white man. He also saw us and walked over to greet us. We told him where we were going and he said that he has a property close to there that we are more than welcome to use. We took him up on his offer and went along our way. About 45 minutes later, he walked down to the river with another woman and they invited us to the house for tea and coffee.
As we walked to the house, Kal, (the man) told me he was Bah’āí. If you don’t know about Bah’āí, it is a New Age religion that take bits and pieces from most other major religions and mixes them together to create one big confusing jumble of beliefs. As we all sat and had our tea and coffee, we started asking about Bah’āí. Kal was very happy to tell us all we wanted to know. He has been in Bah’āí for 30 plus years so there was very little chance of convincing him he was off base by reasoning with him but we could show him that we were different .
Meanwhile, one of the girls on our team started talking with the other girl Kal had with him. She said that she was not Bah’āí and didn’t really know what to believe. I know that we were a really good display of what true belief in Jesus should be like. They got to talk for a long time so I hope God will use that time to work in the girl’s heart.

The picture is of Kal and me walking to his house talking.

Lesotho Overview

Heather and I lead a mission trip to Lesotho from November 28^th to December 12^th this year. We had worked on setting it up for about 4 months and God really blessed us with the team He brought together and the ministries we got to participate in while in Lesotho.

In total, 17 people from 7 different countries went. The ministries included big tent evangelism, orphanage visits, praying with patents at the local hospital, door to door, practical work, and leading a Sunday morning service at the prison in town. During our stay in the town of Mokhotlong, Lesotho, we worked with Harvesters Church. Pastor Obed and his wife Matsolo as well as Tsepo helped us by setting up much of our program and taking us around town to the different locations.

The following posts will account some of our many stories from our amazing two weeks in Lesotho.

Church Photo

Hey Guys!

It's been a while since we've posted; we must be getting lazy!

I just wanted to share a group photo we took the other week of the church we're a part of here in Pretoria. It's about three weeks old and we have even more people now than we did then. We had our first baptism last week. They are a lovely bunch of people with truly amazing stories. We'll help you get to know a few of them in the coming weeks.

Heather

Difference

The differences between South Africa and the US abound. Some things are just cultural but there are other things that make no sense at all. Since we have come here I have realized that, in most cases, there isn’t a “wrong” way to do something. However there are some ways of doing things that are more efficient or easier than others.

If you look back at the Swaziland posts from last September , you will notice my ranting about the old man building the fence. Now, a year later, I look back and see that the man wasn’t building the fence incorrectly because it would have indeed been a fence with posts and wire and a gate. This fence would have stood on it’s own for a few months but after that, no guarantees.

Another cultural difference is time. To us in a western mindset 7am means 7am. But in the rural African mindset, 7am might mean anywhere from 7am to noon. We get so angry about people being late but in the rural African mindset if you show up to a 7am meeting at 9:45 it just means that you got there as soon as you could and that is perfectly fine.

Now for a couple things that make no sense to me. Think of a store such as Sam’s or Costco. The purpose of these stores is to be able to buy a large amount of food at one time in one package and thereby pay less per unit such as per ounce or per pound. Here, in most cases, the larger the package, the more it costs per weight unit. The 1 Kg bag of sugar might cost 8 Rand but the 5 Kg bag costs 47 Rand. This makes the bulk price more expensive than the price of a smaller quantity.

My final example is the taxi drivers. The South African taxi drivers are very angry because of the start of the municipal bus system so they are refusing to take passengers. I don’t understand this. When the taxi drivers refuse to take passengers, doesn’t that just force the people to go on the bus and therefore make the taxi drivers lose money?

Leviticus 19:33-34

Our friend Sarah went through training with us and now works at a shelter for homeless street boys here in inner-city Pretoria. One of the boys she’s working with now is from the DRC. He’s had a difficult past; was abducted from his school and drafted as a child soldier, ran away and bounced from refugee camp to refugee camp in various countries until he ended up on the streets of South Africa. Lately he’s wanted to return home. Sarah had heard that we have a lot of guys from the DRC at our church so she brought him last Sunday. As he met and talked with the other young men, he discovered that they were all from the same village and tribe! In fact, he bears a strong resemblance to two of the other guys and they may even be half-brothers! The boy was very encouraged by this meeting and wants to come to church regularly. Who knows, maybe he’ll even be able to get home soon.

This great “coincidence” is a testimony to our God who cares about the strangers and foreigners in out midst. Please pray for our home church here in South Africa as we’re about to start a church plant among the immigrant community in Pretoria next month. There’s going to be tons of opportunities to meet practical and spiritual needs; pray that people’s lives would be transformed by the Word of God.

Heather

ARVs and the garden

We went back to Oasis for our ministry day yesterday. We got there a little late because we had a meeting in the morning. It didn’t seem like there were as many people this week as there were last week. The best part of it was that we saw Daniel, a man we met last year during our inner city outreach. There is a picture of us with Daniel on the blog for October 23, 2008. The sad part is why we saw him. Sadly he was there because he has HIV.

Daniel started taking the ARV(anti retroviral) medication and started feeling better so he stopped taking it. That is the worst thing an HIV patient can do because it allows the virus to become immune to the medication. Once the virus is immune, a new set of ARVs must be used. There are very few different ARV medications available and all ARVs don’t necessarily work for everyone. A person only has a couple of chances to miss their medication before they are out of options.

Once all the people left, Heather and I worked some in the large garden that Oasis is growing. This garden will be used to supplement the feeding program.

Oasis

Yesterday we went to an HIV/ AIDS ministry called The Oasis. It is the same ministry that we were with for a few days last month. They provide meals for the patients at the ARV (Anti- Retro Viral) clinics as well as run some programs for the kids that come. People may have to stand in line for 4-6 hours in order to get the medicine they need to stay alive. We helped feed around 250 people.

After the feeding program, we went out to the play park that Oasis built for the kids. There were only 5 kids there but we had a good time with them. We played in the sand a lot and drove the barrel cars and played soccer. It is amazing how well 4 year olds can kick a ball.

Oasis has a lot of plans for the future. Right now they are in one of the old operating theaters from the old hospital. It is old and feels very uninviting. There is a complete overhaul in the works which will include a counseling room and a large dining room.