Humbled :)

Good day everyone! It has been a busy day and yet we were only focusing on two activities! We got up and headed straight over to Npolonjeni where we met up with Pastor John and another Bongani. From there we divided into two groups and made home visits to drop off rice packs to people in the neighbourhood.

The first house belonged to an elderly couple however, the house itself was fairly grim. It was small, cramped, dirty with no lights. It was basically poverty at its worst but nevertheless the people were kind enough to let us in to pray for them and hear us out; in fact they were over the moon that we had honoured them by visiting.  It meant a great deal as they had no family and in their culture it is good to have people come to the house.  The elderly lady was called Josphine and according to ex nurse Liz Houston she had suffered a stroke leaving her with paralysis down her right side.  Josphine believed this was a curse as she had been to a witch doctor after she became unwell. Challenge  Ministries provided them with a box of rice that should help feed them for month.

After leaving them we went to the next house to deliver rice packs, they were  equally as welcoming. This family was slightly better off and consisted of grandparents and two grand children, they had no means to support themselves. They too were honoured we had visited them we talked, prayed and even joined in song together!

The last houses; which were actually on the chief's land. The chief had been kind enough to allow two separate families and an elderly Mozambique man, who had nothing, live on his land. It was here that I discovered that I was worth at least 99 cows. One of the men living here took great interest in me and offered my mum said cows for me.  Mum said I was worth at least 102 cows and she did not fancy trying to get them home or look after them, so it looks like I staying single for another while.

The others meanwhile had gone with Pastor John and did similar visits, somehow we had thought that here with the extended family so important that we wouldn't have come across lonely elderly people but we found a lady whose husband and son had both died , leaving her alone. some of her neighbours carried water for her and some local children brought her fire wood, but she was very frail, moving with great difficulty. She was delighted to see the rice packs and asked us to pray that she might have someone to look after her, it was so sad, yet she didn't complain and smiled as she thanked us for our visit.

An elderly man with very gnarled hands had a similar story next, while his neighbour took a great shine to Lindsey and was very disappointed to find that Geoff was there as well, it's as well Amy was in the other team as we would have had a fight on our hands for her we think!
The last visit we to a family, mum and dad were both out and a  12 year old big sister was left looking after her 4 small siblings.  They were being guarded by 4 dogs who growled their welcome at us and even tried to have a nip at Victoria's shins.
on the way back we stopped at a community kitchen where meals are cooked for a small preschool and, when they have rice , extra for anyone in the surrounding community. A very old and black range was in use boiling maize meal and tripe.
one of the things that struck us as we walked around the locality was the variety of houses, beside these poorest of poor homes there were some very large posh houses with a car at the door, it is, like home to a certain extent, a country of haves and have nots.

After our visits we returned to the small church run by Pastor John and his assistant Bongani as put our newly acquired painting skills into practice again. We painted the whole inside and the majority of the outside in a not to exciting colour of magnolia, but hey it looked clean and fresh.  We had a picnic lunch on the grass in front of the church.

Tired and covered in paint we returned home to Hawane for another lovely meal and to light the fire. Yeah, again. It got down to 19 degrees and we were all shivering. (I'm dreading what we'll be like when we get home).

 All in all, it wasn't a bad day, however there isn't much to say about it. I think we're all just coming to terms with the fact that tomorrow is the last day before we leave for South Africa. The week has flown by despite what felt like long days. I'm still annoyed that I ended up coming out with a nasty burn on my arm instead of a golden-brown tan. *face palms*.

Anyway, I'll leave it here so that I can run my lovely red burn under some cold water before I go to bed. God Bless!

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phillipians 4:13