More Details
Dear family and friends,
I promised you yesterday that I would let you know a bit more about what has been happening… I only have the info for the Watonwan part of the group. But here it is.
We arrived in Rorke’s Drift Thursday evening. That is a place you can google. At Rorke’s Drift there is an Arts and Crafts Center as well as agricultural land.
Frida we had a long meeting with people who gathered from all over the Shiyane Circuit. We began some basic sharing. We heard from the people who were partnership folk as well as those who were there from ag sights. Then Saturday we went out to visit a cooperative garden site. The women who were working there gathered and started singing a welcome as they each came to greet us. What a welcome. It was a large garden. Some things were doing very well. Some had bug problems. We looked we shared we listened. In the afternoon we split up, sending people out by twos to different parishes. Folk had very different experiences… the ones who stayed in Rorke’s Drift (Mark and Tim, the camera man, and myself… got into number of other spots. One had heavier land. One lighter. The biggest question as how do you control the weeds… some of the challenges included the lack of male presence… it would take a long time to fully understand the reasons for that.
We met many gracious and energetic folk… one young man was asking for advice on what he might try to study in university. Another wants to be an artist… some have big dreams, some have seemingly hopeless obstacles. Yet there is a lot of hope. There are plans there are cooperatives.
Sunday there was worship in a brand new church. I had the opportunity to preach. A woman translated. Their text was the farmer who hired folk to work in the vineyard. Wow! Couldn’t have been a better text to talk about how Jesus offers to folk stories that meet them where they are at to offer them the opportunity to know God’s grace. The service lasted for about 2.5 hours… singing, praying, worshipping. God is good…
I want to let you know about a place where 100 folk are worshipping in a garage… they take the car out on Sunday morning, scrub the floor… they long for their own place to worship, but for the time being…
And then there is the 9 year old that doesn’t come to school on Thursday and Friday… he cares for his 6 year old brother, and on Thursday and Friday he has to go to the garbage dump to collect food that the grocery store has just dumped. Otherwise he has nothing to eat for the next week.
Now we are at the game reserve. A beautiful spot. Quite a contrast… it is a 5 star hotel, with a buffet grand and extravagant. We had a bull elephant coming toward us on the game drive this morning. Wow. Gorgeous. Poverty and extravagance exist next door to each other. Despair and incredible hope. But through it all we have encountered great hospitality.
Sometimes the power doesn’t work. It is long and hard to find a place to send an email. But God is gracious, and has sustained us for each and every day. God is indeed good.
God bless each and every one of you.
We know you are praying because of the peace in our hearts which has indeed passed all understanding.
Becky.