Day 14 -- Nelmaphious & Day 15 -- Smoooooth

Yesterday we attended church at Charity and Faith's main campus. It was fantastic as usual. My very own sweet husband, AP gave the announcements! At crossroads they stopped asking him to do the announcements because there were too many white males up on stage all the time -- at Charity and Faith they were PUMPED to have a white male give the announcements. I was too enthralled to take a picture. I suppose the more and more I feel at home here the less I take pictures. I'll try to be better about that over the next three days. We danced and sang and listened to Pastor Titus preach about POWER. That how he said, too -- he said it in all caps.

After service we loaded up in our broken down Mercedes Mini Van taxis and headed off to branch churches. I elected to go back to Nelmaphious. That's the same branch that I randomly went to last week, I specifically went back to this week. Nelmaphious ROCKS. Really, they call it the Toi Toi church. That's the fight song that black South Africans sang as they marched against apartheid. It's both political and spiritual, like most things in the world. This specific church just happens to sing that song with more love and passion than I have ever seen any group of people sing any song with.

Nelmaphious Kids:

I hung out with the kids for the first half of the service. Then, I went into church (an old dusty tent) for the message. Elenor, Pastor Titus' wife gave the message. For the first time in South Africa I heard a pastor reveal things about her personal life -- she told a miracle story about her son being healed two years ago. It gave me a larger perspective of God moving in the Mamelodi hospital. I believe that he wants to heal the people there. That thought was backed up today when Maureen called me to let me know that she and Cecil are home from the hospital. The doctors could not believe how quickly he gained strength. I am going to visit them at home tomorrow, and hopefully our gardening teams can plant a garden there by the end of the week.

I like that Nelmaphious branch church -- there is something scrappy about being in a dusty old tent in the middle of nowhere South Africa that gives you the freedom to sing with your full voice and dance with every ounce of energy you can muster. Undignified. Holy.

After branch church we had lunch with the good people of Charity and Faith in a tent back at the main campus. Boy, those South Africans like their tents. Hey Crossroads North Peeps -- ever consider just pitching a tent and going for it?

AP and I elected not to stay with a host family last night. It is true that God even took some time to rest in the middle of a huge project, and we saw last night as our only opportunity to do the same. I went to bed at 8PM. It was sweet. I woke up with more patience and grace than I fell asleep with. Patience and grace are good when you are leading people.

This morning I took a trip to Trade Center with some kids leaders. We packed a taxi (again, picture an old rickety Mercedes) with Simba chips in all flavors -- including smoked beef, yum! We'll have snacks for the kids this week now -- yea!!!

Upon returning to C&F we attended the kick off service for the week. One of the president's cabinet members spoke and made some big promises about supporting the hospice and orphanage. He recognized that the local church was making an impact on the city and vowed to support it. This was a huge step in our work here. The government's funding could sustain many care programs that we have jump started. I pray he follows though.

After the program we set up and got ready for the first kids program of the week. I REJOICE that MANY of our regular state side Kids Club leaders showed up and took charge this week. It was the best kids program we've had here yet. At 1PM there was a line as far as you could see at the door of the church. In my mind we won before we ever got started. Kids felt exceptionally loved today. I ran around with my Nelmaphious crew at my feet all afternoon -- including Nonhalanhla (who told me just to call her Michelle because I failed so miserably at pronouncing her name), Thabitha, and a few really sweet girls who don't say much -- but smile a lot. Today Thabitha handed me a note. It reads:

"I love you Rachel and I can tell that you love us. I will cry on Friday when I don't see you again."

Me too Thabitha, me too.

Some things to pray for (Kate and Brian -- and anyone else):
The CSM kids are all here, but their leaders are tired, and some of them are sick (including PO). Please pray for them.

AP and Timmy are going on a mission tomorrow to Orphanages to diagnose the problem of international adoption of South African orphans to the US. Pray that they will get clear direction and answers. We have met many orphans here, and someone needs to fight for them. Here is one of them, Brandon -- whom AP met because his shoe was untied and Brandon humbly bent down to tie it. Later, AP found out that Brandon doesn't have a family. Someone needs to fight for Brandon to have a good home.
The gardening and kids teams go out to work in the informal settlements tomorrow morning for the first time this week.

Prayers Answered:
Sara -- Lucy got to go to camp today! She got a scholarship to go!
All the CSM kids are here.
Cecil's healing.
People focusing on the relationships, not the "work".