Day 2 - Sunday Worship

Head Usher Mimi, with visitors from America, Mel and Mona

We began our day with a wonderful breakfast and an informal team meeting. We were at Hope Baptist Church by 10 AM to greet many people and be a part of the pre-service praise and prayer time. For those of us on the team who had never been to the church it felt like we were walking into a dream we were remembering since we've seen so many pictures and heard so many stories. For those who have been before it was like returning to old friends. Cintia and Christina led worship and Pastor Julius brought a great message from Mark 2:23-3:6. His message communicated the truth that God doesn't have to work within the systems of man. We are His number one priority and He should be our number one priority. Praise God for the people who accepted Christ this morning during Julius' time of invitation.


The Hope Baptist praise team backup singers

We were able to have wonderful conversation with so many of the church members and even first-time visitors and everyone was so very friendly and willing to talk to us.  South Africa is a melting pot of Africa similar to Arizona is for the U.S.  We spoke with people from Cameroon, Burundi, Ghana, Nigeria and other African countries, all now calling Pretoria home. 

Lunch and some down time took up the late afternoon. We had dinner with Pastor Julius, Cintia and the Evangelism Director from Hope Baptist named Emmanuel (who also happens to be driving us around as he is skilled in driving on the opposite side of the street with the steering wheel on the “wrong” side too – right turns can be exciting here!).  After dinner we returned to the house where we are staying and began the task of cleaning, sorting and organizing the couple thousand sunglasses, readers & prescription glasses we brought to distribute. 

Antoine was probably the highlight of the day as he drew a crowd after church with his sense of humor and friendliness. While we were cleaning and organizing the massive amounts of glasses he was the comic relief as he tried on many pairs of glasses that didn't fit or looked downright silly on him. 

The rain is falling in Sunnyside as we head to bed. As we listen to the refreshing rain we pray that healing rain comes to the souls of Pretoria.

Here are a few more pictures from today (click once on the pictures to enlarge):

Pastor Julius preaches the Word

Dinner with the team at Nando's in Sunnyside, Pretoria



Antoine, those are perfect!