Africa - Day Two

To the weak, I became weak, to win the weak. - I Corinthians 9:22

Today we visited the Extension 23 church. It's name is the "Acts Family Church" which I misheard as the "X Family Church" all day yesterday. (I'm telling you these accents are something to get used to.)

But today, Joey was our pastor! It isn't something that either of us expected at all, but it was an incredible blessing. It was the first time he had shared his testimony in a public setting. Although he was clearly nervous, there weren't very many dry eyes in the room when he had finished.

Afterwards, we split up into teams and canvassed the neighborhood to invite people to come to the events we were having at the church during the week.

We were in what the Africans call a "township." It's a group of government constructed homes established during Apartheid. It was the white government's attempt to keep the black and "colored" (or mixed) people groups from uniting and overthrowing the existing political system.

The church here is simply a tent on an oversized lot given to the Acts Community Church by the government. There are two containers - the kind that are carried on semi trucks - that are positioned behind the tent. The local church staff - four guys and one girl - live in these containers. There is no running water. The toilet is outside in a modern day outhouse with a tarp for a door.

As we walked through the township we were welcomed into several homes where we were able to share our stories and invite the families to the activities we were holding at the church throughout the week. Though simple and without most of our American conveniences, the homes were clean and tidy. The people were proud of what they had and wanted to share.

After visiting four or five homes, one of the girls in my group complained of stomach problems. Our local translator, Thabong, who was really just a 16 year old kid who was fluent in English, offered to let us stop and use the toilet at his house as it was about halfway back to the church from where we were. Unfortunately, the poor girl got really sick before she completely made it into the bathroom! Since we had no clothes, no soap, nothing to clean with, I left her there with one of the guys in our group while I raced back to the church to get the things we needed. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was locked. Everyone had gone out in teams and there wasn't anyone left back at the church to help us.

I've been on more than my share of trips with teenagers and it's hard to throw me much of a curveball, but this situation did just that. I was racking my brain for a solution when our translator took me across the street to his "auntie's" house. (Auntie could mean any female older than him that he has any kind of relationship with.) After some explaining, she was kind enough to loan me some clothes and give me a trash bag. When we returned to the translator's house, his mom also provided us with a basin, a wash rag and a bar of soap. It was a grueling clean up process and much of it was done with ice cold water.

When things were finally as clean as they were going to get under the circumstances, I was ready to leave and get back to the church as soon as possible. But when we stepped out into the yard, Thabong informed us that his mom had fixed something for us.

Oh Lord! Really? I'm pretty sure at this point there are all kinds of germs on me, and I don't eat from random people's homes in Texas! But I sat down at that little table and ate at every single of the peaches and pudding? They call it "trifle" but that can mean a whole lot of different things. The peaches came out of a huge glass jar that said "Mayonnaise" on it and I'm not sure it wasn't some sort of fermented peaches. But it stayed down - thank you, Jesus!!

But I have to be honest and say that by the time we got back to the church, I was almost in tears. My comfort zone had been shattered and my emotions were an absolute wreck.

I truly feel God gifted me with a warm shower in a warm bathroom and a few minutes of solitude when we returned to camp - something I hadn't experienced since we arrived in Africa. And then we had the most incredible dessert - Malba Pudding. It was kind of like warm spice pudding with a butter sauce and fresh whipped cream on top.

What a challenging day that ended with a couple of creature comforts that I didn't deserve and hadn't earned, but they were greatly appreciated.