This morning we were up at seven to get to the
meeting for about half past eight. I’d
brought a bag of low-sugar cereal with me and opening it this morning to have
for breakfast as Wally had said he’s sort a brunch out after the meeting. We took a different route into Brits which
seemed faster than the route via the dam but was still about half an hour.
There was only a very small crowd this morning
fifteen or so at the most however we had a good time doing some different songs
from the night before and then Godfrey spoke a bit, expanding on some of the
things we’d spoken about the night before and then he threw it open for some
Q&A. Wally, the pastor, asked some
good questions and I got an opportunity to share some of the things I’ve
learned along the way in this exploration of the finished work, inclusion and
our identity in Christ. It really seemed
to help some people having a time to conversation and questions. Churches are often scared to death of
questions but I love them. How can we
learn without examining what we believe and questioning it? We finished off with ‘Do you believe’ and ‘I
am not disappointed’ as those had
particularly touched Wally.
I was asked by a lovely lady called Gladys about
forgiveness and how she could forgive someone who had stolen money from
her. I explained as best as I could that
forgiving them was not the same as saying what they did was OK but it was about
your own peace of mind and ensuring you don’t end up reliving the hurt and pain
of the theft again and again until you end up embittered and damaged. That forgiving someone was often more about
you than about the person who had wronged you.
I explained it was also a choice, not a feeling and even if she didn’t
feel like it she could chose to say ‘I forgive’ and that it would get easier. Leave the person who had done the theft to
the authorities and to God to sort out.
I had a delicious brunch of scrambled eggs, bacon,
chips and a south African sausage called Droe wors I think. Godfrey had a fish and vegetables dish. Wally questioned us quite intently about our
beliefs but not in a critical way but in the way of a man wrestling with a
fresh revelation and trying to square it with things he’s believed or been
taught that seem not to line up. He was
especially concerned with hell and judgement but he knew that the focus was to
be Jesus and let such things sort themselves out in the their own good
time. Sometimes the good news does look
too good!
We then headed for the cable car to go up to the
top of the nearby mountain. Our host
Chereen manages the gift shop there so she took us along with Wally and his
wife Rosie. The ride up was super smooth
and quick and the weather was glorious.
We had an ice cream at the top then took the cable car back down to
visit a beautiful supermarket full of the most amazing produce. There were fruits and vegetables the like of
which I’ve never seen plus a surprising number of things exactly the same as at
home!
We bid our goodbyes to Wally and Elisabeth and Chereen
took us back to her house where a thunderstorm started about half past two with
very impressive flashes of fork lightning and heavy rain in the distance
heading towards us.
Tomorrow there’s the possibility that we’ll go to
Pretoria to visit the sister of a lady in the church who is in a secure
psychiatric unit so Godfrey can sing some of his songs there and we’ll also
visit the lady who invited us in to the church in Brits. She’s Wally’s sister and she’s very sick with
cancer. She was at the meeting last
night but had taken a turn for the worse.
In the evening we had a lovely meal of chicken and smoked trout that Chereen's dad Gordon had caught on one of his fishing trips.
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