South Africa - 2008

April 29-May 17, 2008, Henry Weigel

Travel and the Routine

First a caveat. This report is not meant to be a comprehensive report on everybody's activities. It is simply a report on my personal experience, especially in the area of ministry. Construction trips usually are not associated with ministry, but if we look to the Lord He can and does arrange such opportunities.

Close to 30 people comprised the construction missions trip to South Africa to work on the South Africa School of Theology (SAST) facilities. Most of the team were from Bethel Assembly of God, Modesto, California. The trip was organized by Stan and Julie Wagner and Pastor and Mrs. Traub of Bethel. The Wagners came on Monday April 28 and stayed overnight with us. On Tuesday Grace took the three of us to Dulles (IAD) where we flew non-stop to Johannesburg, South Africa arriving on Wednesday – about 14 hours on a South African Airways jet . The missionaries Steve and Glenda Evans picked us up and drove us to Rustenburg, the site of SAST. We were an advance team to get things organized for the rest of the team that arrived on Sunday May 4. A young man, Jarod (from Chicago), had already been there for several weeks getting things started. He is a contractor and wanted to spend some time to do construction work in South Africa.

Two other missionary couples in addition to the Evans pitched in to help with the work: Dan and Debbie, and Vern and Esther The work consisted of tiling, grouting, hanging doors, replacing corrugated sheet metal roofs, ceiling insulation, some wallboard, painting, window glazing and even setting a toilet in place. As in all the trips we had devotionals each day right after lunch led by one of the team members.

Rustenburg and SAST

The father of Glenda Evans, Vern Pettenger, was one of the founders of SAST. So the School is very dear to Glenda. She tells the story of her father being rushed to the hospital quite a long ways from where they were (I think it was in the sixties). He was very ill and coughing up blood. The Lord woke up a saintly woman in the U.S. to pray for Pettenger. She did not know what Pettenger was, a place, a person, or what? But obediently she prayed the night through. It was at the time the Vern was being rushed to the hospital. It turns out he had several blood clots in his system but none lodged in a vital part of his body. Amazing! How the Lord works.

Rustenburg is an area where platinum mining is a dominant industry. One can see heavy trucks hauling the ore. These trucks each can have two trailers attached. Each trailer has two axles with four wheels each. The truck itself has four rear axles with four wheels each and one front axle with two wheels – a total of 26 wheels for the truck and trailers.

Ministry Opportunities

On May 4, the Wagners and the missionaries went to the airport in Johannesburg to pick up the main team. Jarod and I stayed behind and went to the Church that meets at the SAST Chapel. As we arrived and got out of the car, the pastor, Pastor Chris, greeted us and said, "You will bring the sermon." Jarod and I were both startled but he recovered quickly and said no, but then pointed to me and said, "He is the preacher." Jarod hardly knew me.

I was wearing a coat and tie. He had on a short sleeve knit shirt. I knew they dressed up in Africa when they go to church. But I wavered about taking a coat and tie. Grace also knew this little fact and encouraged me to take the sport coat and tie along; so I wore them that Sunday. I said to Pastor Chris, "Are you serious," meaning about me preaching. He said that he was.

During the worship service I prayed my heart out as to what I should preach on. The Lord is faithful. He gave me a topic on "Communicating Jesus." But as the service progressed I noticed that several members of the congregation got up to give short exhortations. I thought perhaps that is what he wanted me to do – a short exhortation. I felt better about my situation until the pastor got up to introduce Jarod. He had Jarod give a short greeting and then turned to me and introduced me as the missionary who would bring the sermon. He proceeded to take the wireless microphone from his person and put it on me. The truth of that action hit me: "This is serious!"

But as I said, the Lord is faithful. He helped me and the message flowed, I would say for a good 45 minutes. A young lady interpreted for me. The whole service was done in two languages, English and a local native language. If a speaker spoke in one, it was interpreted into the other. When I mentioned to Grace about my impromptu sermon, she said that at a Senior Group meeting at church the night before they had prayed for me. Little did they know how much I needed it.

One day I also gave the team devotional after lunch. Several folks said how it had ministered to them.

The Work

I already described the type of work we did. Adding to that I need to say that we worked as hard, if not harder, than any other trip I had been on. My room-mate, Lee, said the sane thing. He did some damage to his knees and legs while working on the roof structure. I had worn a hole into the skin of my right knee about the size of a nickel – wearing knee pads – while doing tiling and grouting. Another day of tiling/grouting and I switched to mortising doors and window glazing. When I mentioned to Grace that I had had to quit working on my knees, she said that she had prayed for my knees because I wouldn't know when to quit!

Some folks went back to work after evening dinner time. One day I went with several folks on an early shift leaving our motel at 4:00 AM and returning at 6:00 PM. I was tired after that. But we got all the work done.

The Safari

The last day we spent at a safari park including staying overnight at the park and going on a guided tour in a two trucks. Before the guided tour we drove through the park ourselves in our own vehicles including two vans and two cars. At one point we got to a place where elephants wanted to cross the road. We stopped as we did not want to argue with them over the right of way. The bull elephant crossed and the driver in the van in front of us started to move. The bull did not like that so he charged the van and came within a couple of feet of the radiator. He then proceeded to go on his way. Following him were other elephants including a young one. After they had crossed the van driver started prematurely. The bull elephant, sensing a threat against his little one, came back and charged the van from the side, again stopping short of hitting the van. When the elephants were safely on their way we were able to proceed.

We were glad that his trunk was down when he charged. We learned later from the park personnel that when an elephant charges with his trunk down he merely wants to intimidate the opposition. But, when he charges with his trunk up, then it is war!

We, of course, saw other animals than elephants, including lions, rhinos, hippos, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, impalas, etc.

Conclusion

We also did a good bit of souvenir shopping and finally boarded the plane in Johannesburg. We were on the plane for a good 18 hours. It stopped once in Dakkar, Senegal for refueling and a security check. We were not allowed to get off the plane and were even discouraged from leaving our seats. I was happy to get home. Although one of my bags did not make the flight and was delivered the next evening.