Praying for rain - this is what the people from Bethesda and the surrounding community have been doing for months, and today those prayers were answered.
The team started today by visiting the church in the local township. The church is lead by several of the families of Bethesda. We enjoyed an exciting time of worship in a community alive and excited to be following Christ. We have made quite an impression on the people of this church. By now, they all know our favorite song that they sing, so they treated us by singing it for us at the end of the service. All of us where moved by the singing and preaching.
Following church, we drove directly to a local lodge for lunch and a short “game drive” in the local game reserve (which adjoins Bethesda). While eating lunch in the lodge lapa, thunder began rolling in the distance. Soon we were in the middle of a full-on African rain storm complete with hail. The rain seemed to pass through so we loaded up the Game Viewer (Land Rover) and went off for our drive. Soon after we departed the rains returned and several team members were soaked through. The shower was brief and after it ended we were treated to spectacular animal sightings. We saw giraffe, zebra, impala, warthogs, bless buck, wildebeest etc... We all agree the trip was worth the soaking.
We returned briefly to the team center to change and soon where on our way to Central Baptist Church in Pretoria. The service was quite typical of some of the larger, more traditional services in the US and provided a contrast to our mornings experience. Over all, while completely different, the service was still moving (though some of us were so tired, we struggled to stay awake).
We are all back at the team center, relaxing and preparing for bed after a LONG day. Tomorrow will be a full work day for us, some will be back laying bricks and others will be back at the school. We will all sleep well with sweet dreams of giraffes.
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