I met up with Godfrey yesterday near the M1 to
travel down to Heathrow. We got there
really easily with very little in the way of delays or holdups and arrived
almost 5 hours before the flight was due to depart. A much easier journey than my poor wife Mags
had home. The two hours it took to drop
drop me off turned into almost four hour for her return trip.
I met a dog handler while having coffee in T5 who
was training explosives sniffer dogs.
Every time they successfully found his bag with plastic explosives in
the dog got a play with a tennis ball and some praise. I hope he had fake plastic explosives in the
bag, not the real deal! We had a good
chat about dogs and his job and I was surprised how much he was allowed to tell
me about it.
The lift in T5 had the poshest announcer’s voice
I’ve ever heard, so posh I muttered in my best RP accent “Four years at RADA
and I’m doing the voice of an airport lift” which got a chuckle from some of
the packed passengers.
A pint of Guinness was an excellent accompaniment
to a full English breakfast for tea then we boarded the plane. Here we come to a fine candidate for one of
Godfrey’s ‘top tips’. When Mags and I
travel, with or without the kids, we always just wait until the plane is nearly
full before boarding so we don’t have to stand in the lengthy queue to
board. Godfrey doesn’t. As soon as they called the first class he was
up and in that much shorter queue. I
followed rather reluctantly and he said he almost always just gets straight on
and low and behold we didn’t get bounced or told to come back later but were
waved straight on! Sadly we didn’t get
to sit in first or even business class, we had to put up with the very back
row, chosen in the hope that people don’t like the back row so if the flight wasn’t
too full we might be able to lie down across multiple seats and get some
kip. The flight was rammed. Ever seat was taken and we ended up with a
guy sitting between us in our little block of three. Godfrey wanted the aisle so he could get out
easier and I like the window so I can see, plus who wants to be in the
middle? The guy seemed a bit put out but
that’s life.
Started reading C. Baxter Kruger’s slim little
book “Jesus and the undoing of Adam” as I’ve been meaning to read it for
months. I’ve managed to get half way
through and it is excellent. It not a
book to just speed read through. I like
the cut of his jib as they say.
I managed to watch about three quarters of Wonder
Woman early in the morning when I’d finally given up on sleeping before we
landed. It truly is a superb film. It’s
certainly the most emotionally moving of the super-hero films of late.
Immigration and baggage claim in Johannesburg was
a breeze if a little slow, but nowhere near as slow as Newark or Atlanta in the
USA can be. Then we were met by Johan and Terence from the church in
Stilfontaine. It was a two hour or so
drive to their place from the airport but when we arrived it was
beautiful. The wooden houses are in a
little fenced-off compound near the church grounds, surrounded by stunning
countryside and we were made very welcome.
Godfrey is with Johan and Tarryn’s family and I’m with Terence and
Vicky’s.
We had a sound-check and quick rehearsal about 4pm
then the meeting started about 6pm.
Godfrey’s got the whole evening other than a short Bible-school
graduation ceremony at the beginning and as they’re all really excited about
him being here it really kicked off into a really fun party. The band was great with a bass player,
Terence on electric guitar and Johan on keyboards and harmonica. Godfrey’s preach went down a storm too. The message of ‘you’re a wonderful son’ -
which if you’ve heard him speak anytime in the last few years you’ll have heard
it. It’s a good message.
The meeting was live streamed at Spirit Word
Ministries Facebook page.
The dancing during some of the songs was superb,
clearly some of the younger folks have some dances they’ve developed and all do
in unison, it was wonderful to see them doing it. Such exuberance and joy being expressed is
great to see.
After the meeting we had a bite to eat and then
crashed into blissful and deep sleep until the morning.
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