08-10-08

This morning for church we went to a new church plant in the township right across from Bethesda. The pastor is also one of the houseparents, he also goes to seminary ten days a month and works on maintenance. He is a BUSY man! The church was in a small concrete room that was smaller than half of a basketball court (it is a daycare center during the week). We were the first ones there and helped set up (we were there only 5 minutes early...but that is very early in African time). They certainly love to praise the Lord in song and dance...Baptists in America are going to have to learn to dance once they get to heaven. They said the clap and sing with their voices and dance with their feet because that's what God has given them to praise the Lord. When we get home we will have to show you all the video of the singing. The pastor taught from Matthew 16:13-20. It was really cool to hear him speak in English and then hear his wife translate it into Tswana using the same hand motions and voice inflection. Even when we couldn't understand what they were saying you could tell they loved God with all their heart. We had lunch with the Cryan's, they heard that Andrew was part Mexican (lol!) and loved tacos so they made him tacos for dinner.

For evening church we went to a completely different type of church. Ruth (the school principle), Heather (one of the teachers), and Alyssa (one of the interns) attend that church. It is a mostly white church (Afrikaans people) in Pretoria. It was what we would think of as a typical Sunday evening service. American missionaries started this church about a dozen years ago, and it has really grown.

We are looking forward to working hard this week at Bethesda on maintenance projects, at the school, and helping with child care. It is going to be a VERY busy week, and we can't wait to start the adventure.