Day 5 at The Pines

Yesterday morning everyone from The Pines went to church. The church is a small school room in a housing development called Reahola and it's not far from The Pines. We were all VERY impressed by the children because the second they walked in the door, they starting leading each other in singing and didn't have to be prompted at all. (Lois says they may have been showing off a bit for the visitors, but regardless... it was cool!) Once we got started, Louis and Amber led us all in a few more songs and then Amber and some of the team members took the little ones under 1st grade out for Sunday School, while Louis stayed back and taught the older children. We learned the old testament story of Ehud and to be honest I'm not sure how many of us had heard that story before. Louis is an excellent teacher and kept us all on the edge of our seats. We were so surprised by how much the children know about the bible. They go to a private Christian school, but most of the knowledge seems to come from the O'Tools and the Niehoff's. They are doing such a great job with the children! We could all learn a ton from them about parenting and teaching. It's very inspiring. (We use that word a lot around here!) After the children's service, a few more adults from the complex came in and we started the regular church service. The children all came back in and sat down and total there were probably about 50 of us in attendance. We sang some hymns accapella and the preacher preached from Matthew 12. The service was all in English but during the sermon there was a Sutu translator. It took a bit to get used to hearing a couple of sentences in English and then a pause and the same sentences in Sutu. We were all bummed to miss the last couple of lessons on "Identity Theft" at Point of Grace, but we really enjoyed our church experience in South Africa. It was definitely different than what we're used to. No lights, no band, no Jeff, no Tom, no cupholders. But it was great reminder that church isn't about any of those things... it's all about Jesus.

After church, we came back to The Pines and grilled out a wonderful lunch of BBQ chicken. A couple of the High School boys from church came back and had lunch with us and played with the kids. They were all great guys with huge hearts for God and seem to all be very gifted leaders. We were excited to meet them. We had Troy's baptism after lunch and then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the kids. Wynde was teaching the girls (and Bart and Steve) how to make friendship bracelets. A few of them really got into, which was fun. Later in the early evening, the team went to Brian and Lois's flat to watch a video called "Indescribable", which we would love to show you all when we get home! After the video they showed us some pictures of the renovations that have gone on at The Pines and some photos of the children when they first arrived. Some of them are almost unrecognizable, they look so different now! After that we had a dinner thanks to Julie who prepared some cheesy cornbread and some awesome Chicken Tortilla soup. We got a little surprise after dinner in the form of a thunderstorm. It hasn't rained here since April, so it was cool that we got to be here when it finally rained!

We have had so much fun so far and can already tell that this last week is going to fly by. We have a lot of projects we'd still like to accomplish before we go, so we're praying for a very fun and productive week. We miss you all and pray that you are doing well back at home. We'll see you in a little under a week.

With all our Love - Steve, Chris, Bart, Troy, Wynde, Robin, Julie, and Jamey