Pastor David Maier - Forward in Hope

Monday, August 21, 2006 A Long Day’s Travel to Durban …

A beautiful clear morning … Packed bags were down to the vans by 7 … a quick breakfast … devotions … finding a van to ride in for the day … and we were off for the ride. And we rode and rode and rode … with a few stops for gas, to relieve ourselves, or to get some snacks. Time in our van was spent telling stories, reading, sleeping, playing cards, and viewing the diverse geographic features of South Africa. We went through mountainous areas (though the mountains were not snow capped and not near as beautiful as in MONTANA), canyons, lowlands and grass lands filled with grazing cattle and sheep. We again saw lovely resorts for vacationers as well as poverty stricken areas where homes were comprised of aluminum signs, with no electricity, undoubtedly heated with coal which also was the way food would be cooked. We went through small towns … and larger cities … until we finally came to Durban, a huge seaport for South Africa on the Indian Ocean. As we arrived (about 6:30 PM) it was already dark and the city lights were expansive lighting up the night. There were impressive looking malls … and ghetto areas before we got to our Hotel.

Durban, it turns out, like any major sea port in Africa or Asia, is a very dangerous place. Therefore, Pastor Khumalo, who has always looked after our safety, has us in a Hotel that actually faces the ocean, in an area of many other Hotels. The guys gathered for dinner at 7:30 PM and then most took a walk TOGETHER outside. We learned from a policeman that a few weeks ago three tourists had been murdered presumably just to get their cell phones. I had the guys surround me at this point (just kidding).

Sunday, August 20 Meaningful Worship with a Small House Church

This morning James, Tabo, Ryan, Jason, and I had an early breakfast – 7 am – and headed for Nelspruit. Our purpose was to find the hotel that had broadband internet access so that we could set up a live exchange with God’s family at our Savior in the late service. We found the Hotel, purchased 24 hours of Broadband access, and began uploading about 60 + pictures to the OSL Website. The rest of the group got up later, had a leisurely breakfast, and picked us up on the way to church in Nelpruit. The service this morning would be at a house-church … much like the ones I visited when I was first here almost 17 years ago.

I was excited that it was a beautiful morning, the internet connection was working, and with the anticipation that we would be a part of a worship service that would long be remembered. Mandla had shared some things with me that would be revealed at the worship service – both to the native worshipers at the church and to our 18 brothers from the mission team as well. After traveling about 15 minutes outside of town we came to a village of “new homes.” The homes basically have two rooms in them -- a bedroom and a central living area that includes the kitchen cooking and eating areas. All the homes are government subsidized and this particular village is populated with Swazi people.

Once at the village we pulled off to the side of the road to await an escort to the “church.” A truck came filled with brightly dressed women that greeted us joyously. After they hopped back into their truck … and with horns beeping and blaring we made our way to the fron yard of a home where under the porch we would eventually have a worship service. The children greeted us with a living song and “play” after we emptied the vans. They too were colorfully dressed and like the women that had greeted us, some appeared to be in native garb. The first songs by all these children were in the Swazi language.

Friday, August 18 Leave Middelburg and travel to Nelspruit

After a breakfast with the 4 teachers from Sofunda and Sozama Schools … and an announcement that they would hopefully be coming to the Lansing, MI, in April for 2 weeks to watch High School Baseball practices, games, and get some “coaches training” with Jake Boss … we checked out and got ready for out trip to Nelspruit. About six guys needed to exchange money so Pastor Khumalo took them to the bank in Middelburg. About 2 hours later … we finally all loaded up the three vans and immediately recognized that we would also need the small trailer on Tabo’s van to hold all the luggage.

By the way, we are traveling in three Volkswagen Vanagons – 2 white and one blue. Two have been rented and one belongs to a dear brother in Christ – Tabo. Tabo is driving his van, Pastor Khumalo another, and Issac or “Ike” the last one. They are the only additional people that are traveling with us at this point in time. That means that each van is carrying seven people … the driver and side kick in bucket seats up front, three people in the middle bench seat, and 2 people in the back bench seat right in front of the open luggage compartment.

We made one quick stop for snacks, another to walk through an old railroad tunnel … the end of which rewarded us with a beautiful canyon panorama with spectacular waterfall on the left side, and finally stopped at Sudwala Cave. On the way up to the entrace of the cave we saw about 30 – 40 monkeys that ran run in front of us and climbed some trees and the roof of the building we were passing.

Friday, August 11 - Baseball Begins

The team is hard at work with their first clinic taking place right now.  Pastor Khumalo has taken me back to his church (less than a mile away) to be able to let folks back home know what is happening.

This morning we had breakfast at our Hotel and then were officialy greeted by the Associate Minister of Culture, Sports, and Recreation, along with two other associates.  They are spending the entire day with us and will also be addressing the teachers and students at the School we are going to.  The pont is that the government is very interested and very supportive of what we are doing ... and it is there hope that we establish a South AFrican Baseball League among the Hight Schoolers.  They realize that we are Christians and are still quite encouraging ... hoping that our witness and the establishment of baseball will keep the youth centered on positive things in live.  After a devotion by Ron Switzer the vans were packed up and we were on our way.

We first stopped at St. Peter Evangelical School of South Africa where we were greeted in song by the primary school children.  They were as beautiful as was their singing.  The gear that we had send ahead of time baseballs, bats, bases, gloves, catching outfits, etc., along with the water bottles that have our officail baseball trip logo on them (purchased and sent by St. PEter in Arlington Heights, IL) were already divided into 6 equal parts for the six clinics.  We brought with us over 1000 caps which will also be handed out.

With equipment in hand we went to our first High School, named Sofunda.  They have 1500 students ... many of whom, in their central gathering area outside, greeted us as sports heros with loud cheers.  They also welcomed us with a song and the beautiful harmonies that they sing accapela so incredibly. 

We actually met with the teachers first, and when they heard that we were all christains ... many of them broke into 2 praise songs for the Lord ... awesome.  Just awesome.

Thereafter we headed to the baseball "field", which was just being cleared by a front loader of rocks and 3-4 foot high grass and weeds.  It is rough for the purpose of baseball.  When I left the team was already divided into their 7 groups each taking about 30 children to begin teaching the particular skill asigned. 

The sky is cloudless, the team excited, the children more so, and we are all most excited about the personal testimonies that will be given by 2 of our men followed up by a Gospel presentation.  Please pray for the Holy Spirit's mighty work in our midst as we pray that he uses us.

I'm now running with Pastor Khumalo to get some sandwiches for the team.  We have not eaten since 8:30 and it is already 2:30.  Some of our men need to eat more regularly because of health concerns.  Keep this in prayer also.

As of right now ... I do not believe that we will have a live broadcast from this church to our church because there is only dial up here ... dial up that keeps disconnecting as well.  We will work hard to find one however.

Blessings!

Friday, August 11 (early) ... Thanks for Your Prayers ...

Hello everyone.  We're in S. Africa ... but I'm currently entering this info on the Hotel computer.  Our laptop does not seem to wrk with a hard wired connection.  Since all of our BLOG entires have first been typed on the lap top ... we have not been able to send any entires.  We will be working on this problem today.

Right now we are getting ready for our first baseball camp.  We anticipate that although this problably wouldn't cause much of a stir in the states, it will do some wonderful things here.  The men are prepared for the time of witness and the Gospel presentation after the persoanl testimonies.  Please pray for the Holy Spirit's attending power.

Will attempt to send the other blog entries later.  If I can't ... I will try and do a blog entry from Pastor Khumalo's church office.  It is dial and not that trustworthy ... but willgive it a try.

Blessings to all of you and especially our families.