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On Friday March 20th, our son Caleb and his friend Shawna arrived from Oregon for a one-week visit, after spending 36 hours in automobiles, airplanes, and airports. Amazingly, they were actually coherent!

We headed almost immediately to the Mason Lincoln School for the Physically Disabled (known to everyone as Happy’s School, because the headmistress is a woman named Happy). Bro David White led a Bible study, and then Jane led an activity with the kids — she did a short study on water, and then each student wrote a Bible verse on a water cup, which they then could keep. Caleb and Paul pitched in to help out.

On Saturday we had a youth day in Mariannhill. Turnout was light, but we had a nice small study group. Caleb led one class, and Sister Lungile from Lamontville led the second one (in Zulu). Shawna and Caleb provided games, including a twister-type game that consisted mostly of laughter!

On Sunday, Caleb and Shawna went to meeting out in Mariannhill, and then Caleb was tapped to do a witness talk in Westville.

Not to work our visitors unmercifully, we visited a game park on Monday & Tuesday. But after this short vacation, it was back to work! Paul concluded a series he’s been leading for the Durban Bible class on Wed night. Thursday was spent with administrative work, and on Friday Paul & Caleb had the class in the BEC while Jane & Shawna worked in the shop.

The week ended Saturday morning with leafleting in Lamontville to advertise the study day the following Saturday. This put us in the homes of people in the township, many of whom live in a single room. Very sobering, and a reminder of how blessed most of us are. But we found, as we had been told, that no matter how basic the home (and in some cases not very tidy on the outside), the inside of the home, the clothing, and the body are kept clean – this is a powerful element of Zulu culture.

The leafleting paid off! Yesterday we held the study day, and four people came from the neighborhood, who haven’t attended anything previously. All told we had 12 visitors, not nearly as many as January, but a definite improvement over March.

It clearly makes a difference when we serve a meal, as we did in January. While going door to door, we actually had a couple of people say directly, “If you have food I’ll come.” It is hard to know where the balance lies on this issue. We don’t really want to bribe people to attend, but on the other hand feeding needy people is certainly a good thing to do. The approach that is being taken is to occasionally have an event that includes a meal, but not all the time. This would seem to fit the pattern set by Jesus, who as far as we know only fed the crowds twice; and he rebuked the crowd that followed him only in hope of getting another meal.

We pray that the seed sown on Saturday among new contacts, and the watering of several longstanding students, may result in growth and fruit, to the glory of God. We know who it is that gives the growth!

Paul & Jane Zilmer, 5 April, 2009