Baptisms

This morning we had a baptism service at Dihlabeng. I don't know how many were baptised but I would guess around 30 - 40. Baptism services here are amazing. We erect a pool in the middle of the church and we all sit round it. We have a time of worship which is usually even more vibrant than normal as everyone's so excited about the baptisms. Then we have a short gospel presentation. This morning Ntate Joseph was saved and promptly asked to be baptised! Then the baptisms happen. Those who are being 'dunked' queue up, kids first, and one after another they climb into the pool and are baptised. Meanwhile ladies in the congregation lead different African praise songs and the atmosphere is incredible. Today there were some very elderly people being baptised who bravely left their crutches and walking sticks behind and allowed themselves to be lifted in and out of the pool - not very dignified!


Part of the queue of kids waiting to be baptised


Lerato, one of the Mapheo girls I home visit is baptised


One of the girls from the youth new christians course I'm helping to run is baptised

Culture shock

Most of the time living here I just get on with it. It's not that I don't notice cultural differences - they're hard to miss as they're everywhere, it's more that they have ceased to suprise me. But now and then, events happen which send me into a kind of cultural shock. I suddenly realise that I really am here, living in a completely foreign culture that I have only scratched the surface of. It hit me again last night.

Last week at the youth meeting during a response for salvation a young girl started manifesting. I took her into a private room with a friend and we began to chat with her and pray for her. As she had come forward to be saved she had felt like her hands and feet were tied. The Holy Spirit prompted me to delve a little into her church background and we discovered that the only other 'church' she had attended had performed live animal sacrifices and rituals during the meetings. I explained to her that her feelings of captivity were not from Jesus - that He died so that we might have life and freedom. We prayed for her and as we serve a God who is infinitely more powerful than the princes of darkness she was delivered.

Then last night I was walking home from church with a friend. He's a wonderful young Christian guy who is sadly an orphan. He was orphaned sometime ago but last night he told me that his extended family are putting pressure on him to shave his head in response to his fathers death in order to please the ancestors. He was asking my advice on the situation. And what a complex situation it is - especially for me, the english girl, to understand. His number one priority is live for God and to bring glory to Him, but he also realises that sometimes it's ok to compromise on these things in order to preserve relationships with family members who are not yet saved.

It's after dealing with situations like these that I suddenly realise afresh what a foreign culture I'm living in. I know that every culture has good and bad within it and we should always be asking what God's heart on an issue is. We are members of His Kingdom first and foremost. We must be prepared to lay our own cultural expectations down if they hinder our journey in becoming more like Christ.

Water

So the water conditions in Clarens have been pretty awful for the last couple of weeks - bathroom water is distinctly brown and drinking water is cloudy for at least a couple of minutes after you pour it! The other day I ran a bath and then promptly let all the water out again as I couldn't face getting in such dirty water. So now I always use bubble bath so that the bubbles obscure the colour! The water here can be dodgy but it normally only lasts a couple of days before the municipality gets it sorted. Here's hoping that they correct the problem soon :-)

Added excitement at Mapheo

So yesterday we had a little extra excitement at Mapheo. I put out water play as it was a scorching hot day which got rather out of control and many kids had to half strip as they were so wet!

But even more 'exciting' was the arrival of a snake! Some of the older kids were playing ball games at the back of the hall when they noticed the snake slithering across the stage just behind them. This wasn't a snake that was afraid of us either and it headed straight for the kids! We got the children to stand well back from it - no mean feat as so many of them were bizarrely fascinated by it. Thankfully it decided not to come after us and slunk off. Some of the men who help at Mapheo managed to trap it behind the stage and eventually kill it. We're fairly sure that it was a small spitting cobra - one of the few poisonous snakes in this area. I hope we don't see one in church again!


Water Play




The kids try and get a look at the cornered snake


The thankfully now dead snake