10th Newsletter - Back from Gazankului

Avusheni… ((This is Zhangan and means good day ☺)

Hello!

I'm back from Gazankului. There I spent two weeks on the road in the African bush with a team of 10 people. We lived in a village called “Cork” ,where we have supported the local church work.

In the first week we helped prepare a wedding. Every evening a church service was celebrated at which the bride and groom, however, were not present. Finally on Sunday, we were able to take part in a true African wedding.

This was a special experience! First we Europeans had our first culture shock. While everyone was dancing, the bride and groom sat at the table looking serious, not showing the smallest smile. I actually thought that it was a forced marriage.

Afterwards we learned that this was part of the culture. If the bride and groom would show joy, they would dishonour their parents, because they show that they are glad to move away from their parents.

How does an African church prepare for Easter?
The 5 days before Easter a "Crusade" is celebrated. That means more than 8 hours of church service per day until Easter Sunday. I have to mention, however, that 80 percent of an African church service consists of singing, dancing, and calling “Hallelujah” is. We contributed various skits, testimonies and sermons. Our biggest problem remains the different conceptions of time and punctuality. A worship usually begins 30-40 minutes later than planned and also usually takes half an hour longer than announced.

In addition to the services the community maintains an orphanage. Here the children go to Kindergarten and preschool in the morning, get a regular meal and have a place to sleep.

All this happens in very, very modest conditions. There is only one room in which all children share the beds. The child care is really only in the morning and thereafter no longer available for the children. For food, there is “pap” three times per day. Pap is corn flour infused with hot water. A bit like oatmeal. Not really tasty.

The guys in our team have grown a vegetable garden for the orphanage. The vegetable garden is such a blessing to the orphanage. It was very encouraging to see that we could leave something lasting for the long term.

Working with the children in the orphanage was very dear to me. I helped in kindergarten, in the preschool and with the food distribution.

In the 2 weeks I have built a deep relationship with one of the girls. Her name is Kindness, she is 7 years old. Her mother has sent her to the orphanage because she herself is still at school and also an orphan.

I still correspond with Kindness. For me she is now a kind of Godchild. Four people form my team and I want to support the orphanage regularly. There is an urgent need for food, pens, books and clothing.

In the village there are a lot of witchcraft and superstition. This was a totally new and challenging experience for me. Because some people believe that wizards can cure many children and babies are sent regularly to them. People wear amulets around the neck, which they hope can cure.

This has shown me the importance to pray to God for protection. It is good to know that God is stronger than Satan and we need not have fear. Another area of the church work was visiting people in their homes in the village. We have prayed for the sick, distributed Bibles, invited people and spent time with them.

My personal cultural highlight was preparing peanut butter: Pounding peanuts, crushing,
heating and stirring the butter.

What have I missed?

· Normal clothes! - After 2 weeks of wearing long skirts and headscarves I was longing for jogging pants.
· Shadow! - The heat was daunting. Up to 45 ° C and far and wide not a cool place.
· My family! - Easter Sunday in the bush is just not the same as Easter breakfast at home

Prayer requests:
· The orphanage, for financial support and better education.
· For spiritual growth of the Church against superstition and witchcraft.

Thank God:

· For my team and our great fellowship
· That we all remained healthy
The first leaves fall from the trees, autumn is close.

Our next operation begins mid-May. Until then I'm on the base and more back in the classroom.

Greetings,
Pina