I have spent the last 4 days telling and hearing war stories and I don't want you to feel left out.
I have just got back from 12 days of rural outreach in Belfast - a tiny village in Gazankulu - a 7 hour drive east from our training base. I led a team of 10 amazing people who I now have a new found love and respect for. I could not possibly recount all of the crazy, hilarious, scary, amazing, mind blowing stories that these 12 days produced in as many blog posts let alone 1.
However to give you an idea of the scene ...
we were camping in the front yard of the pastor who we were staying with and supporting/ being supported by for our time in Belfast. - Meet pastor Jeniffer:
There is no running water and the taps that are dotted around the village seem to operate independently from one another meaning it is a wild goose chase to find water. Our shower consists of a piece of tarp wrapped around 3 poles and a bucket and obviously we are using a long drop - to those of you who are not familiar with this it is essentially a hole in the floor with a cesspit below it - good times. All the chickens in the village thought it was a great idea to scream at the top of their lungs capacity every night at around 12, 3 and 5 AM and in between them the witch doctors (Sangomas) of the village get up and have a drumming party to put curses on the Christian pastor of the village and her white guests. Good times!
This is a sangoma herding his cattle to new pastures. Pray for him.
Let there be no doubt - our time in Belfast was incredible, we had an hour by hour schedule drawn up for us by our pastor - she was well prepared for our arrival so we worked very hard for the time that we were there and saw some amazing fruit from out labours. We also had our fair share of tough lessons learned and scars to prove them. Among other more personal things I learnt that trying to make veet Coek (Fat cake) in the dark over an open fire that I was maintaining with very hot oil in the pan and the spoon in my hand while trying to pick up something else is too many things at once. Oh and I learned how hot that spoon really was as displayed by the title picture.
This was the view that saw almost every night...
So here is a little glimpse of the face of Belfast and here is the story that we heard which is seemingly the same in all of Gazankulu...
I saw this beautiful young girl almost every day - I did not see her smile once. Pray for her.
I met this little ones family ~ they were lovely people, her older brothers have just finished school and are unemployed. We didn't even ask about the father. Pray for them.
This is the Grandmother of the house ~ she has been completely blind for 2 years and I have met few people more content in Jesus. Pray for her.
The Women hold this place together - there is low employment rate so the men are demotivated. They almost unanimously turn to alcohol to drown their sorrows based on the number of liquor stores in a place that has no running water. So the men are absent. Those who have jobs work 7 days a week, the ones without go and find a tree somewhere and sit under it for weeks. The wives and mothers are left at home with numerous children and sometimes grandchildren. They grow some of their own food on their own property but there is no way they can be completely sustained by this. They cook all the meals (it's a bigger deal when you have so start a fire with wood that you have gathered in order to heat your food) They also bring in some income if they have a skill set that is practical.
These women are amazing. They some how battle on through a sea of apathy.
One of these mats takes 5 days to complete, working all day.
The church is largely the same - it is 95% women and they carry all the weight / host all events / do all that needs to be done to make the church function practically. Animism is also rife - the worship of ancestors is common place even within the church, a lot of people will still consult witch doctors and the spirits of their dead grand parents for protection and guidance. This gave rise to the Zionist church which is an odd mix of Christianity and ancestral worship but even outside of the Zionist church ancestral worship is so ingrained into society that it happens everywhere. Talking to Pastor Jennifer about this I asked her how she managed to cope with so many people trying to serve 2 masters and the absence of men. She laughed, looked me in the eye and said 'I have been faithful to the lord since the day he saved me and he sustains me' Such an incredibly refined faith, simple and strong.
This is the daughter of a sangoma who had just been healed of acute pain in her side through the power of prayer and decided to live her life for Jesus, she seemed pretty happy about the decision. Pray for her.
So despite the darkness the surrounds Gazankulu I do not despair because I know there is a very real and very strong hope.
A lady being prayed for that pain would leave her body ~ which it did. Pray for her.
Title font : 'Lithos Pro'
