We spent the entire day in the township. We went to church at River of Life Christian Fellowship. I could not have been more out of my comfort zone. There's video.
They made Robb preach and made me sing and play guitar. They made all of us dance laps around the room several times. Then we went over to the Kerus house of encouragement and had lunch. It was good.
We gave a clinic for worship leaders at the church. By 'we' I mean Robb. That dude can teach. We shared some songs back and forth and talked alot about cultural barriers and the meaning of worship and that.
6PM
I'm now at Willem's house where Internet lives. Im checking email and I'm realizing that people are actually reading this. I have mixed emotions about that.
840PM
Soshanguve is not really what I expected. I mean it looks like I expected and everything but the people are different than I thought. They don't act poor. You're all wondering what I mean by that and I guess so am I. I had a conversation with this lady named Patricia. She's the pastors daughter. We were talking about challenges they were facing in the church. She didn't say anything about poverty or hunger or poor facilities or anything I could leap in and solve for her like Superwhite Man. Instead she talked about young people making poor choices and broken relationships and getting people to understand who Jesus is.
It's not enough to say my expectations were wrong. The entire framework for my thought process about coming here was erroneous. This is a partnership and I find myself digging deep into my limited experience as a church leader just to try and offer them some weapon against the same darkness we face in our own church. I'm ill-prepared. I may as well be in New Jersey or something, you know, except everyone is black and more polite.
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