Life on the edge

A small group of intrepid volunteers from Durban recently made the seven hour road trip to the remote rural village of Candu in the Eastern Cape for a three night stay at the Good News Centre. Upon arrival we were greeted by sister Dorothy and brother Templeton along with several other sisters and many jubilant children! I was instantly taken away by Templeton and shown the long list of maintenance tasks requiring attention. Good job we brought the toolbox!

After an early night and a good night's sleep we arose to a beautiful sunny day. Esther and I headed off to Dutywa with Templeton to buy building supplies, while the others stayed to help with the crèche. I was wearing my Kingdom of God t-shirt and while we were at the wood yard the foreman kept looking at me. I soon realised he was reading my t-shirt so I had a good chat with him (after discovering he also spoke good English). It turned out he knew his Bible really well and was interested in coming to our church at Candu. When questioned by Templeton "Who is the devil?" he thought for a second and replied "He's in my head!" It's amazing how God provides us with opportunities for preaching in the most unlikely situations!

The urgent maintenance tasks involved fixing a leak in one of the water tanks (which involved climbing inside the tank to seal it!) and making the front gate cow-proof. After re-jigging the pipework we were also able to fill the tank for the Good News Centre, which Templeton was very pleased about. Once the maintenance tasks were complete we were able to get on with our main objective, which was to scope for some sustainability projects aimed at making the ecclesia at Candu totally self sufficient, if successful.

The evening before we left Templeton gathered his flock for a memorial service, which was a nice spiritual end to our visit. Several of the volunteers drove to Butterworth to pick up Siyanda, Templeton's son, who is studying at university. James Dean exhorted us on the true meaning of the bread and wine and the local brothers and sisters thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship with us.

After a 5.45am start to drop Siyanda at Dutywa we headed back to Durban, enjoying the wonderful scenery and reflecting on our time in Candu. It was a very busy few days but a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city and I hope we can soon return to Candu to continue spreading the gospel and showing God's love to those in need.

Adam Brooker

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