Sunday 12^th August

by Dan and Ali

“Of Man’s first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree

whose mortal taste bought death into the world, and loss of Eden”

                                                                        John Milton – Paradise Lost

After days of peaceful reflection

at Ekukhanyeni, a place of light

whose scenery was nothing short of perfection,

Back to Siyabuswa, before our flight,

Peace and rest, this was not for us

We travelled to church in a minibus!

                                                                        Dan and Ali – Poem Unpublished

Today – Andrew Weston’s birthday – was a relatively laid back day, all things considered. We had a rare lie in, getting up at about 9.00, before the group split. While a few decided to have a third visit to Hope Church, most of the group tried a new church 50 kilometres west of Siyabuswa. Despite following the wrong bus initially (turned out to be a miscommunication) and then managing to miss the church the first time (we drove past it), we made it safely and were rewarded with an energetic – and ear drum shattering-experience. What this church lacked in congregation size it made up for in sheer volume with the drummer managing to actually break his high-hat with a single mighty strike. Hendrick’s sermon – whilst confusing with its many tangents – was an engaging and arousing one, nicely bringing the service into its final powerful, uplifting (and not to mention near-deafening worship) session.

After church, the two groups were reunited for lunch and a final bumper briefing delivered by none other than our very own Andrew ‘List Man’ Weston. Logistics came first and thanks to Tony’s effective book balancing decisions, had to be made regarding both the distribution of both the leftover mission fund and the money left over from the general living fund made up of the money paid by us. This meant every member of our 22 strong team had one hundred pounds to either take home or donate to Grace School or the Bible College. After these decisions were made, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of tuna pasta whilst the Weston Brothers and Tony crunched the numbers.

Dinner was polished off, washing up was done and then back together we came to hear the outcome of the money distribution. £600 will be spent on 240 bibles for Hope For Africa Mission (to be bought by Dr Hendrick), £869.66 to be spent on improving the local church plants and a further £700 will be donated to Grace Christian School for a range of resources.

From briefing into devotions lead by Robert including: group prayer, Nelson’s touching encouragement for the future and our theme song: ‘Jesus, all for Jesus’. After all this was done it was time for Andrew and Steph’s surprise certificate ceremony. The rewards and recipients are as follows:

Best Quotes – Jack

Best church dancer – Rose

Moral Baseline – Alistair

Parkour Prince – Cameron

Resident Stuntman – Toby

Extreme Photographer – Jocey

Most likely to have a child/animal in their luggage - Daniel

Executive Chef – Abby

Group Troublemaker - Amy

Fashionista – Hannah

List Man – Andrew

Stuck in the ‘80s – Robert

Olympics Expert – Carrie

Best English Accent - Rod

Siyabuswa’s Most Wanted Driver – Tim

Monkey Lover – Frances

Hippo Lover – Steph

Sweet Potato – Laura

Stubborn Steamroller – Eva

Can Sleep Anywhere – Tony

Biblical Scholar – Helen

Lion Whisperer – Suzy

Your prayers for tomorrow will be necessary and gratefully received. Thank you for your continued support and see you soon! (Doubt if we'll be able to add anything further to the blog until we are back in the UK)