Getting the church's hands dirty

Yesterday was Mandela Day, Nelson Mandela's birthday and a day on which people are encouraged to spend 67minutes in the service of humanity. Me and my wife decided to pick up litter in our little town's main street. The morning at church I invited congregation members to join us. Ten guys showed up and we started cleaning a segment. We chatted and I got to know a few people that I didn't even know belonged to our congregation. It felt great looking back over the stretch we cleaned after 60 or so minutes! A scene that will stay with me forever is when we finished and everybody raised their hands in the air to show each other how dirty it is.

There is something about a group of twelve that gets their hands dirty in service of Christ and their community that excites me!

A Child shall lead them

A congregation here in Delmas collaborate with an American organization and the local community in our Township Botleng to built houses for poor people. When I visited the project the first time, kids popped up out of nowhere and started playing with my son. They gave him a cookie. The next time we visited, I bought a bag of lollies, gave it to Steph and told him to hand it out to his friends. My son experienced the joy of giving. He insisted on not even having one himself (and he love lollies!) so that he can give to more kids. After his generosity he played his heart out with them and I had to torn him away from his new friends when it was time to leave. Should we raise children or should we allow them to show us the way? Sometimes I wonder...