By Timothy Young with input from
Paul and Vicki
Recently, we went to an African church near the town of
White
River in the
province of Mpumalanga. After dad had preached a sermon at the church we
drove through a section of town called Jerusalem, in the Masoyi tribal district (I saw that sign). The
house was unfinished, but it was much bigger and better than many African houses
I have seen.
We
were all sort of tired from the travel over to the church from another town, and
from the service. Also after we had taken a tour of the house, the fire for
lunch was started. We were sitting outside, on a porch, when the first part
arrived. It was a clone coke and four really big, really nice pieces of
chocolate cake that raised both our spirits and our ability to carry on a
conversation. Remarks could be made about the nature of conversation or sugar
or something, but I will refrain from those. (I, Vicki, would say that Coke/cake combo saved the day! We were a droopy, blah bunch, and the unaccustomed caffiene turned us into hyper conversationalists.)
So
then, adequately refreshed, conversation started to flow. When Pastor Samuel
wasn’t cooking, we asked him how he was saved. He was a refugee from the
Mozambique Civil War in the 90s. He had come to
South
Africa
after both his parents had been killed in the fighting, and he was in with the
wrong crowd. Then in ‘96 a woman brought him to the large
church of Rhema for a few weeks. Nothing happened there and then his
boss started bringing him to another church. Here he realized that God was real
and said that he would become a Christian, on condition that he could become a
South African citizen. He had very little hope of success, but prayed for it.
He also prayed that since he was planning to stay here, that he could speak
English. God answered these prayers. He could suddenly speak English. Armed with these two answers to prayer he and
a friend went into the premier’s office. A secretary came down as they came in,
instructed to bring in a white man and a black man who had an appointment. They
being white and black, were both rushed in. Pastor Samuel said that he
explained, crying, that his parents had been killed in the civil war and that he
had no relatives in Mozambique. The premier said, “I am half Mozambican, we are
brothers. I will send your papers into Johannesburg.” In fact, he didn’t just send his papers, but made a
declaration that all Mozambicans who had been in the country five years or more
were to report for identification documents. So we can say God answered this
prayer too.
It
is kind of interesting how we met Pastor Samuel. Dad had just preached in a
Dutch Reformed Church and had left a number of books for people as we usually
do. They are Afrikaans and not generally
known for fellowshipping with Africans, and usually the feeling is mutual.
However, due to the bravery of one kind DRC minister back in the early 2000s
Pastor Samuel had been holding a Monday service for poor people there. There
was no money to be made here, which is why a number of other black pastors had
refused the DR church’s request. But Samuel came. When he arrived on Monday morning he
noticed one of the books that Dad had given out the night before. It was
Principles of Church Growth (http://drawingotherstochrist.com/text_sermon/pcg.pdf),
and after reading a few pages he prayed that Dad could come to his church. He
had seen that we lived in Cape Town and had not expected his prayer to be answered that
soon, but he called anyway and found that dad was in the area. Dad visited him and arranged for the Sunday
meeting.
In
2011 his wife got meningitis and went into a coma for three years. People advised him to put her into a home and
ignore her. But he daily took care of her needs and stayed faithful. Some
neighbors mockingly said something like, “He healed others but can’t heal his
wife.” So he built a wall around his
property for some privacy. It is a nice wall. Others of his neighbors said “He
doesn’t have the heart of a man, but a cow.” He has a big heart. Basically it
means that he cared more for his wife than was expected of a man. But in time
God did answered his prayers, and his wife was healed. She cooked a very nice
Sunday dinner for us.
Mom
asked how he had gotten married, and that was a bit of a funny story. He had
known his future wife for a while, but didn’t think he loved her. Then one day
she helped an old homeless non-christian man, who announced to Pastor Samuel that
this was the woman who would work best with him in ministry, so he repented and
married her, once lobola was paid. More on that later.
They have three daughters who have interesting names.
Perhaps the most interesting to me was Surrender, who seemed to be very
determined. I could see so many humorous
applications that I was smiling through much of the meal. Another was Marvelous
Wonderful, and the third I think was Helen Charisma.
One
of the things that impressed me was the fact that he was not obscure; he had
served as an official South African translator in
Angola, and had been assigned to deal out large amounts of
government funds. Large amounts (millions). But he was not obviously proud, the way some
people are when they have access to that kind of cash or that level of civil
power. The other money related thing that impressed me was that he never asked
for money from us, which is a rare thing. He commented on how when black people
see white people, they see them as potential money. He repeatedly stated that
God was his source and gave some of the examples mentioned above as proof. He
impressed me as someone who God has gifted to be able to handle money and not
become trapped in the excitement of handling money.
 |
| Pastor Samuel and family with us. |
We
had a few other cultural discussions which were just interesting: the South Korean missionaries that he knew,
the Mozambican traditions, etc. Perhaps the most interesting custom we
discussed was lobola, bride price. It is not strictly between the father-in-law
and the son-in-law. Think of it as a family to family level exchange. R50 000
lobola is not unheard of, and keep in mind this is a country with the average
yearly earning of about that much. This, of course, in practice creates a
cultural push for later marriages, which is ok, except people are people. They
do not always wait for marriage, especially in the city. He and his younger,
unmarried pastor friend of 38 were both against it. He said that it led to the
current state of many fatherless homes in
South
Africa.
Vicki here again. On one of triple scheduled days, Paul preached in the prison with the Bible College people at Back to the Bible in Barberton, so Tim and Josh took the other schools he had scheduled. I dropped Tim first, then buzzed Josh over to a gold mine sponsored school. I helped him set up, then headed back for Tim. As I was walking to the car, I startled a little boy coming to school. He looked shocked and completely disgusted at my alarmingly white self being in an unexpected place. I started laughing at his horrified expression, and now, nearly a month later, I'm still laughing when I think about it.
Shrunk from a note to Paul's sister Joy: We should get home tomorrow! Yesterday we got to Jo'burg after Paul and Josh spoke 4 times, one planned and three spur-of-the-moments schools. We began to hunt accommodation, singing our song, "Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah." First hotel we checked, right by the airport cost over 6000 rand! Shocker. So we moved a bit away from the airport and found one for 1/10th of that...more our style. We got a nice apartment with the best shower of the whole trip! It had a Roman's Pizza within walking distance which was perfect for the "something special" Paul wanted to do for Josh's last night in Africa for awhile. Very thankful.
And from a letter a few days earlier:
 |
| Gloria Luus who scheduled Paul 8 places in White River area! Amazing lady. |
Tim and Josh just after they spoke at the mountain top school.
Tim shaking hands at a mountain top school. These kids were extra fun and friendly.
Paul really did the double scheduling thing today, with
some help from Elreza. Result was that he backed out of his own commitments,
and passed them to Tim and Josh, and he did the Mission stuff which was a school
and 2 prison meetings. So I drove the boys, and our second school was so fun
and cool. I.E. NO one was afraid of me. This was a group of cuties who all
wanted to shake my hand, and one brazen lassie took a fearful swipe at touching
my hair. I shook a LOT of little hands. After they went through, they'd circle
back around and have another go at it. So some days I'm a horror, and other
days I'm just plain fascinating.
It was a memorable school. It went with a gold mine!
Unique, except in this area where all the schools seem to have a plaque saying,
"Sponsored by Sheba Mine" or some such. There are some nice buildings and
science labs and computer rooms and stuff. This one was on top of a mountain,
and was quite a thing to drive up there for it. Scary! One lane road, and
then you're at a little community at the top, where everyone is super friendly.
I enjoyed it.
Right near our mission is a Sheba Mine branch that mines
talc. Or mined talc. The workers went on strike, and so the mine closed as
they were demanding double pay. So the people totally looted the mine
buildings, stealing the roofs, the window frames, everything. Someone wrote "Sorry" in paint on one building, and I want to write
"You killed the goose that laid the golden eggs." Sad.
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