rain down mighty God

After having no water from Thursday morning till Monday night, I have a new appreciation for something that is so simple yet so important! For a while, we were able to get some clean water from a tap, but that ran out quickly. Then there was no water for the showers, washing dishes, cooking, washing our hands, flushing the toilets, or drinking. Thank God for hand sanitizer, baby wipes, and that we have a pool on the base that became our sole source of water. We filled up bottles to flush the toilets and to wash the dishes. Not the most sanitary way of washing dishes, but I think enough of us were praying over it that we all made it through without any harm. On Thursday, we lost power for the whole day and so we didn’t have water than either. However, what I never would have thought about through this whole time, was water for baby formula! Luckily, we were able to make it to Eunice’s house in the morning to get clean water for Sentila’s formula.

Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to go with Eunice and Brittany to a clinic in Kabokweni. We were going so that Sentila could have her immunization, but it was also a neat experience for me to see a clinic. It was rather small and by the time we got there at 7 in the morning, all the benches were full of people waiting to be seated and a line formed of women with their children, waiting for shots to be given. We waited for about an hour in line, which seemed so long!  Yet, everyone was just patiently waiting. At one point, a nurse came up to ask Brittany and me if she could help us. It was a strange experience being picked out of the crowd because I was a white in the clinic. The towns we are working in are mainly black Africans, but a lot of the other towns are mixed a lot more than it is in the states. I suppose because I had seen so much of the main cities being mixed, that the amount of racial difference that still exists here just hadn’t hit me yet. During the week, I had a chance to watch Catch a Fire with Eunice and Stanley. It is a story about South African’s freedom and if you ever have a chance, I suggest watching it. It was very good. But, that also gave me an opportunity to talk with them about South Africa’s freedom. Eunice told me, that had it been 10 years ago, there is no way she would be in the class now with all of us. In a way, it makes our ministry here just that much more neat. I hope we can show love to the communities to help mend the face of whites in this country.

This week, we had a South African man, named Ronas lead our class through a discussion about culture in ministry and also leadership. The culture part was very interesting! We talked about differences in culture. For example, men will eat first in the African culture, and then the women and children will eat afterwards. Also, they refer to their father’s sister’s children as their brothers and sisters along with their mother’s father’s children as brothers and sisters. But their mother’s sister’s kids and their father’s brother’s kids are their cousins. Uh? Way to make it complicated. J I also learned that it is common for African men to just stop on the side of the rode to go to the bathroom. Since then, I have witnessed this cultural tendency at least 5 times.  One big thing we also talked about was presenting the gospel without the culture. It’s such a simple statement, but something I had never really considered. Ronas was telling us that when missionaries came here, they all wore suits and ties. Now, pastors here are looked down upon greatly if they don’t wear a suit and tie, even though it is really unrealistic expectation with the extreme heat here. Hm, just a little something that I’ve thought a lot about this week! Next week, one of the staff members will be leading us in a class titled The Fatherheart of God.

Everything else is going well here. We now have the internet available at the base so hopefully I will have the opportunity to provide ya’ll with more updates. Thank you for the continued prayers! And I’ll leave you with the words from one of the songs we sing with the kids here. I wish I could record it and put it up here for you to hear, because it’s adorable, but the words will have to do for now.

“He’s a good God, He’s a mighty God, He’s so lovely” And then there is some African language thrown in there too, but that’s still a bit too advanced for me. But amen to it anyways.

Also, if you would like to read more about our time here you can read Jocelyn’s blog at alwaysspreadlove.blogspot.com and Monique’s at moniqueslaughter.blogspot.com