14 Churches

So the past 5 days have been spent in the Transkei, visiting 14 different churches surrounding Butterworth, a town in the Transkei. Each day just got better and better, although by the end of it half of me was glad that we were going home, while half of me was sad to leave the girls I'd talked to behind.

I guess I'll just share with you the highlights of the trip, otherwise a description of each church would bore you to tears and convict you never to visit this blog again. Ever.

1. Experienced real South African culture - in each church the people (kids included) would sing and harmonise so naturally. All it takes is one person to start singing and everybody else joins in! And each choral performance is so full of life. Movement is so natural, and I promise you, the voice of 1 kid singing is probably equivalent to the volume of 5 Mariannes combined.

2. Tasted real South African food - cooked with love! A "Simple Lunch" = fried rice, fried chicken, spinach, pumpkin, juice... A real spread! And it's obvious that they spent a lot of time and effort preparing the food and accommodation for us :)

3. Visited the Xhosa Royal Palace and was supposed to visit the Xhosa King, but he was in a meeting. Visited the place where the Xhosa king would stay in - still under construction. It's a community of 10 huts or so? And the king would supposedly stay in one of them...

4. Bathed with merely 2 litres of water! I used to pride myself in being able to have a bucket bath with a full bucket of water, but this is nothing compared to what we had at the churches located in semi-desert areas where water is scarce. A small bucket of water is shared between 2 people, and it's basically poured into a wash basin so you can't exactly scoop it out and pour it over yourself... Anyway, I managed to wash my hair and my face and rinse my body, which I find quite amazing. If you're not impressed, please try it for yourself. I managed to do this on 2 separate occasions! Yesyes, I am quite proud of that. Hahahaha.

5. Admitted to being far from South African. The children here run around barefoot, stepping into cow dung and picking it up with their hands to throw at us.... (!?!?!?!) while I gasp when I happen to step on cow dung with my shoes on.

6. Marked my territory in the numerous long-drop toilets over here. The toilets are basically cubicles outside the houses, and you just make your mark in a hole in the ground, so the smell is not exactly the most pleasant, but you get used to it.

7. Pee-ed in toilets without doors... Never in my life have I pee-ed faster.

8. Painted the faces of a lot of toddlers - from South African flags to crosses and hearts to explain the love of Jesus. It's difficult though, because the younger ones don't know any English so communication is a challenge and you don't know if they actually understand you at all. It makes it worse that they're probably so confused they don't smile - not the most favourable response when you're not that confident either.

9. Played games with teenage girls - something I enjoyed the most during this outreach. Most of them go to school and study English as a second language, so they do understand some of what we say, which definitely helps a lot. And they also pick up games quicker and help explain them in Xhosa to the younger ones. Managed to use the Living Ball (which is a soccer ball with different colours) to explain the Gospel to some, which was really great too. I mean, they all go to church, but you can never be sure if they actually know and have a relationship with Jesus. They're really responsive too, smiling and being so warm and all. It's a pity I didn't get any photos of or with them, because much as i'd have liked to take photos, I didn't want that to prevent me from being there and ministering to them without being distracted by my camera...

10. Saw the most amazing night sky I've ever seen in my entire life. A whole multitude of bright, shining stars - brighter than I've ever seen before. And the best part is... I could see the Milky Way! For the frist time ever, I saw the milky way! And it was simply amazing, breath-taking. I can't go into more detail because words really cannot paint the picture... I tried to in my journal and failed miserably.

Those were the highlights! Or interesting stuff. Haha. At each church there was much to learn, and I really enjoyed the time spent with the youths from St Columba's too :)

Thanks for praying, I really appreciate it! :)

Till next time, take care and God bless!
Lots of love,
Marianne