It's Easter Monday evening and we've arrived back in our hotel after spending a four hour trip on the road back to Johannesburg from Newcastle. Today we met up with Rev Vuyani Yepe and his amazing team of workers in the Uniting Presbyterian Church of South Africa.  Vuyani has been in this congregation since he was a probationer in 2009. The only way to describe him is that he is utterly committed to serving his community and inspiring his congregation to become servants of the parish in which most of them live.

We met first thing this morning outside his Church. We arrived about 9.30am. A group of women had been there since 7.00.am, some before that to prepare food for around 200 school children in the district.

Vuyani explains to me the importance of feeding the children.  It's Easter holidays and many of them would be going hungry if the church didn't step in and feed the children. We leave the woman still working at preparing the meals. We head off in cars to see the plot of ground the chief of the local tribe has given the church to develop a centre for training and skill development, as well as a place of worship. One of the elders explains that he hopes one of the big Credit Unions will give some financial support in order that the building will go ahead.
 

We drive about five minutes from the site to an area where a group of small shacks look like litter on the landscape. Here in this one roomed shack lives a mother and two sons. One of her sons was born with chronic cerebral palsy. He cannot speak and has a twisted spine. He is unable to bend so he lies constantly on a bed. Anthony smiles a lot. He is nineteen years old.

The church discovered this woman and her family just over a year ago. Since then they have put a window in the little shack and have plumbed in water and electricity. She tells us she is so grateful for all she has received. Her little room looks like a palace. Everything is meticulously tided away. Her son is amazingly clean and his skin seemed free from bed sores. Carol Findlay our companion comments on the amazing job this mother is doing looking after her sons in such a small building. Carol comments on how fresh the young man's mouth is and how well groomed he is. He takes a shine to Carol and smiles as she holds his hand.

What can be done for someone in this situation? Vuyani explains that they have talked over a number of options with the mother and the best one would be to use the existing land and build her a brand new home. This would create space for the younger boy, who still attends school, to have a place to study. It would also create more space to work with the young man suffering from Cerebral Palsy.

The sun is beating down on the hot tin roof that leaks when it rains. I'm asked to pray for this family. I take a moment and place my hands on the young man's head and ask God's blessing upon him. Inwardly I'm crying and asking God to help this woman find a solution to her need. She thanks us for coming reminding us again of her gratitude to the church for all they have given to her. The window that has let more light in, the fridge that keeps her food fresh, the running water that helps her keep her son clean, the electricity that runs her fridge. Here is a woman thankful for what she has been given.
I walk from the little shack humbled by her thankfulness and challenged to try and make her future better. I ask what it would cost to build her a modest two roomed properly plastered and rendered. The price is around £3000.00. What a difference a small amount of money could make in these circumstances. An extra room would allow the younger boy who attends school to have some space for study and it would create more space to nurse a young man who deserves much better.

We return to the church to find over 200 teenagers singing and dancing in the church before we have the privilege of serving them the food that the women have spent all morning preparing.

As we returned this evening from Newcastle the sun was setting and we were all deep in thought. What might God be seeking to do with the friendships that we have been building in Africa these last few days.
Both these churches we visited St Columba's and Newcastle Uniting Presbyterian Church were so different yet both had something in common their desire to serve the poorer people in their parishes.