On Saturday, our team traveled to Daduza Township. This was special because it is Chris’s hometown. It is a sprawling community, made of some official low income homesteads and many squatter camps. The people were friendly and welcoming, especially those at the church. This church “building” is a tent stained with the African red dirt. The ladies of the church come in and cover the floor with scraps of carpet, hang lace and material across the front and place baskets of artifical flowers around the stage area. The men set up the chairs, microphones, and music equipment.
We had evangelism training led by Chris and were paired with people from the church. Then we ate lunch together to get to know each other. Once paired with the locals, we all introduced each other. We were all surprised to discover through the introductions the ladies gave of Mr. Naz, that he actually has two African wives…each for 5 years! That brought laughter to everyone.
Once again, everyone’s lunch was prepared by Christy Page and her children. The numbers that they feed each week is astonishing. They had already made scrambled eggs for our breakfast before we came here today. This day they prepared lunch in one of the two rooms (only separated by a curtain) of the home next to the tent. On the side of the house was an outhouse structure that housed a modern toilet.
After lunch our small groups went out in the community door to door. We were amazed at how quickly the people invited us into their homes and how eagerly they listened to what we had to say. There were so many people that are depending on good works to get them to heaven. It was great for our kids to be involved with demonstrating to these how to follow Christ and Christ alone. The people were amazed to learn that God offers salvation as a free gift of mercy and grace alone because of the sacrifice of this son who died for our sins. They do understand sin sacrafices. Many of them make real sin sacrafices (chickens or goats or other animals) to their ancestors in an effort to seek forgiveness. At least six people on this day accepted Christ while we were sharing. Many others thanked us for sharing and said they needed a night to think on it. Some came back to the church with us for a service at 3:00. We all were encouraged by how well the visits had gone. The church people are willing now to do this again.
At the three thirty service, Darren and Carrie shared their testimonies, Julia sang a solo, and the drama team did their skit, inspite of an injury to Julia's thumb that had to be patched up just before she appeared on stage.
The people’s homes may appear like a shack on the outside, but many on inside are surprizingly bright with neatly displayed everyday objects and lace wherever possible. The floors were swept as clean as possible with all the red dusty dirt just outside the doorway. Some were more what you would guess, a dirty mess indoors. They hang fabric and curtains to divide the space into rooms. The homes that had electricity usually had a television. One house had big screen TVs.
We ran into the braid shop run from home, a man boiling herbs and items to get rid of evil spirits that he believed his wife had cursed upon him when she left, a boy racked with fever and pain swaying back and forth suffering from an AIDS rash, and children 10, 11, 12 years old who were the head of their households. Definitely, not America. Yet, beautiful people that God loves and wants to have relationships with.
We returned home to a South African Brie – sort of like an American Bar-b-que. Brad and his wife had prepared African sausages on the grill and served with buns, potato salad and brownies. We ate outside on the covered patio area and shared stories of the day. Christy a nurse, tended to Julia's injury more properly. Then it was time to prep for Sunday Morning and finish up packing our bags for tomorrow’s departure. Thank you for your prayers and support! They are priceless!
