Day off - The second Sunday

The second Sunday

We began the day by setting off after breakfast to go to church. We went to a specific church, Church Unlimited, as it was the church which David attended when he was last in South Africa, however he said that he hadn't been for a while and so was not sure of the changes which could have happened since and so we went with open minds. We were amazed when we arrived at the lavish homes leading up to the church and were even more stunned when we saw the beautiful building of the church, a mock converted barn and the Vicarage which was huge and had a swimming pool! The beautiful setting then led us to the beginning of the worship which commenced with singing and an accompaniment from the band which David fondly remembered, after being part of it when he lived in South Africa. After the worship songs, someone preached about Acts 2 and 3 which spread quickly to Acts 6 (then taking us back to the talk which we experienced in the community prayer and focusing our entire trip on its relation to the book of Acts). We all took different things from the sermon-type-talk, but all of the team found that the message was about spiritual growth and confirmation in faith. This service was interesting for us, however as we were not regular attenders of the church, we weren't used to the rhythm and pattern of the way things were done and some found this difficult. After the service we were introduced to many of David's friends from the church and from Hands at Work, making us feel more welcome into the new church which we had experienced. 

We then got back into the bus and began to travel to Kaapschoep, where we ate at a pancake house surrounded by a spectacularly green view! This was also home to wild horses, which we stroked the foal of, and baboons which we all marvelled at!! After our two courses of pancakes, one savoury and one sweet, we began to set off on a walk along a rocky road which led us to a stunning view of the area, an opportunity for some fab pictures.

As Alison was itching to drive the mini bus, Chris allowed her to drive round the car park and everyone commented on the excellent clutch control, enlarging her smile further!

When we travelled back to Hands we spent some quality time together and then shared dinner, before going to bed after a long day out. 

We had had two great days of relaxation and a chance to look a bit further afield at this amazing country. Once back at Hands it was time to re-focus on the week ahead. We spent a couple of hours reviewing highlights and challenges from the week before, spending time reviewing how we were working as a team and doing a similar exercise to that which we did on our orientation day, where we encouraged each other by writing comments of encouragement about each other.

We then played the sock game which was great fun, 9 of Chris's socks, clean ones, had objects put into them. We passed them around and had 5 seconds to determine what was inside. Claire then read Psalm 139 vs 1-3

[1] … You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. [2] You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. [3] You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. [4] 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely …

This made us think about how we can be quick to judge people before we really know them and how we should try to understand people's situation, get to know how their feeling, understand their story.

This set us up for the challenge of the coming week, where we will be visiting a new community in another different part of Mpumalanga, listening to their stories and sharing Gods love. We concluded the session in prayer and asked God to bless our team as we start a new venture.