Sunday Celebration!

Our ministry time is done and it is hard to believe how quickly it went. The remainder of the trip is personal time that we can use just to relax, hunt, golf or possibly any other number of activities.  All of these choices are at our own expense.  As far as the hunting goes it is nice to know that any profits from it do go to support Shikwaru Lodge and the many programs for children across South Africa and soon Zambia.  As we hunt the PH's (professional hunters or guides) keep encouraging us to shoot more animals. The quote of the week by John Rickenbach, while he gives us a hard time about not shooting more animals has been,  "It's for the children!" 

I know that I am enjoying the hunting and hope to bring back something special for my wall but I also know that if they could have arranged for a couple more schools for us to be at that would have been even more fun!  The excitement that we all had driving home from the schools that carried over into our supper conversations was awesome. 

Our group is full of instructors who are passionate about serving God and using Centershot as the tool. They are also very passionate about hunting and that is what makes these days together so much fun in God's creation. It is like hunting with long lost friends. The words of encouragement and the joking around are nonstop. It has been a great time of refreshing and gathering ideas on preparation for our own ministires at home.  There are sure to be some lifelong bonds that have developed on this trip. 

We had a sweet moment last night as Casey from Texas, a very experienced archer, took an impala. Along with Casey's success was Joe from California, who had never shot anything with a bow, who shot a Kudu as his first bow kill.  To gather at camp after their successful hunts and congratulate them both was a special time.  It was fun to see the joy of both a new bowhunter right along side that of a experienced bowhunter and realize again that it never gets old!

This morning (Sunday) a large group of us headed to Mokopane to go to church. I have been looking forward to worshiping in Africa since soon after I committed to going on this trip.  We attended "The Church of the First Born". It was in a neighborhood that reminded me of some of the poorer neighborhoods of Mexico. There were many square small brick structures without paved roads and all kinds of people walking around rather than driving. I'm only guessing but I would think the church would have seated about 1500 on the plastic patio chairs that were set up.  We arrived at 10 AM and the worship had already begun and you could easily hear it from outside the church. There were probably only 200 people there but as the worship time progressed people continued to arrive. By the time the sermon started I would estimate there was a thousand people in attendance. One of the highlights of the service to me was the prayer time. The pastor would request prayer for a specific need and then everyone would pray out loud together at the same time.  Here prayer seemed 'urgent' for lack of a better term. If you looked around you saw people pacing back and forth pleading with God, some with hands raised, some praising Him, and everyone continued to pray throughout the whole time urgently on each need shared. It was truly a concert of prayer and a beautiful picture of how great God is to have the ability to hear all our prayers at once. 

Another highlight to me would be how enthusiastically the sermon was delivered and full of solid content to challenge me in my walk with the Lord. It was about Hannah and how Penninah was an irritant to her through her life, but it didn't keep her from seeking to over come this conflict and to pray to ask God to answer her prayer for a son. The preacher also emphasized that we should be living a life that causes those around us to question why we are so different. These are just a couple of the points that I picked up on as some of it was difficult to understand. He preached in English but it was translated to their African tongue, sentence by sentence, by a lady sitting in the front row. 

The final and most obvious difference in the service would be the style of worship. The best description for it would be found in 2 Samuel 6:14 where here it says David danced before The Lord with all his might. It certainly is different than my choice in style of worship but I can't help but think that their love for God is certainly more apparent than mine.  I assume they they looked at me and wondered if I even know God.  I am so glad that I could be a part of their Sunday and feel blessed that I could participate along with them in their worship service.  Heaven will be amazing to see how all of our worship comes together!

This afternoon we once again had the opportunity to hunt and although my day was very slow it was great to return to the lodge to discover that Ardon had made a great shot on an Impala. Earlier in the week he had missed a shot on one, so it was cool that he got another chance and made good on it. Seeing the video of him after the shot you might think he had a case of Ebola. I'm so happy he could have that exciting adventure today!