Safe Arrival, Wonderful Worship

South Africa Team 1824 Blog #5

10-21-2018

“Safe Arrival, Wonderful Worship”

We arrived in South Africa last night, safe and sound, after a somewhat grueling 2 days of travel. We have a retired pastor who’s our driver/tour guide, named Knut (pronounced knoot; the K is not silent). After we squished all our luggage into the trailer hooked to the 12 passenger van, we took off toward Middelburg in search of dinner. We stopped at a fast-food joint called ‘Steer,’ and at first I was in shock at the $20 coffee, until I realized it only translated to about $1.50.

We settled in quickly to the Mission House (pictured), where seven of us are staying: Lynne, me (Linda), Carol, Sandy, Judy, Charlotte and Ruth. The other three, Glenn, Dave, and Dave’s wife Jean, are staying at the Guest House (aka the lap of luxury).

We all met for breakfast at the Mission House, and Knut then wisked us off to St. Peter Confessional Lutheran Church in Mhluzi, a neighborhood of Middelburg. The service started at 9:30am, and ended at 2pm. That is NOT a typo. It was a wonderful, spirit-filled, singing, clapping, dancing, praising, preaching 4 ½ hours of church. Everybody danced - pastors, parishioners, guests and kids! Didn’t seem very Lutheran, but then this is not your typical Midwest German Lutheran church, either. And praise God for that, because what they do here works. Everyone is engaged, and loving the service.

The second picture shows all the pastors, deaconesses, and communion attendants dancing their way up the stairs to the very large dias in the front of the church.

All the kids from the church school participated in the worship service. The group in the third picture did a lovely flag dance while they sang about their savior.

Following the worship service, the congregation and guests prayed, sang, and officially opened the brand new eyeglass clinic on the church campus, which is where our team will do our first clinic tomorrow.

Please pray that our clinic set-up goes smoothly, that we all learn our jobs quickly, that God is given all the glory for the success of the clinic, and that the mistakes remain our own.

After all the celebrating/commissioning, the church served a beautiful banquet luncheon. Following the lovely late lunch (the food was put out at 3pm), we did a bit of grocery shopping, and came back to the Mission House for a devotion from Glenn and a light supper.

We’re tired, but happy, and looking forward to our (my) first clinic. Please be aware that our WiFi is a little iffy, so if your friend or family member can’t reach you, or be reached, that could be the issue.

Love to all the folks back home!

Respectfully Submitted,
Linda Meier
Missionary (!)