It was cold but clear - so our Church team set off in high spirits to help refurbish the little Methodist Church building in Hanover Park, at the hear of Cape Town's Gangland, where one reporter reckons that "the kill rate is higher than Afghanistan or Iraq"
I preach here every now and again, so I know my way around; but the team seemed more than a little edgy. Still, everyone got down to scrubbing and painting the roof, sanding and varnishing and general tidying up on an unusually dry winter's Saturday (31mm of rain predicted for NEXT Saturday!). Our minister, David Howard, was leading from the front, and I was so pleased to see his intentional engagement with the poor by setting up this work day. I signed up like a shot!
Unfortunately I have recently sprained my wrist, so I couldn't really do much work. So I took my paints and set up outside in the street. I had hords ofsmall kids, many teenagers and adults, even some gangster groups drifting by and listening to the story...which was basically - we are here to help our Christian brothers and sisters; and God is the God who welcomes home every returning prodigal child. Blending a picture of the workers on the church roof with an episodic version of the prodigal son parable. I must have told the story over 20 times to more than 100 people - my Afrikaans was baie beter aan die einde as van vooraf:)
On the way home I bought a huge snoek for R40 - which when interpreted for non-SA readers is a large local toothy fish for a very good price!
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