"It's time for Bible Club!" "Come to Gogo's for Bible Club!" "Kajima kajima! (hurry hurry)"
This is what we heard as we drove up to Gogo's preschool last Saturday – a whole bunch of the regular kids were marching through the street with a megaphone, rounding up the neighborhood. This is why we love the first Saturday of the month – meeting with a group of 50 odd super excited kids (ages ranging from about 1 to 18), sharing God's Word amongst games and fun and laughter, and leaving to pleas of 'please can't you come EVERY Saturday'.
The Saturday Bible Club was initiated by Jonathan and Megan Sabo during their stay with us, and then taken over by Liezl & Hendri for a while, until Michael & I joined the team and could take ownership. The venue, God Is Love Preschool, owned by Gogo (Zulu for grandmother, as she is the community 'grandmother') is situated is Delmore Gardens, which is a lovely little neighborhood, built in such a way that there is only one entrance – all the roads just loop around back to it, which gives it a very familial feel. Not even 5 minutes drive away each side of it there are two informal settlements, and we pick up kids from one of these settlements for the Bible Club.
We were very blessed to be able to share with Gogo and the kids the wonderful news that Autopage has finally handed over the money to build a community centre, similar to the Aphiwe Good News Centre in Tembisa, in Delmore Gardens! The news was met with whoops of joy and applause – and all the kids trying to work out just how near they live to where the centre is going to be! For Gogo this also means an upgrade from her double garage & lounge crèche to proper facilities, with decent lighting and new equipment.
Various members of the community are starting to recognize us & the bakkie and will stop us to tell us how much they appreciate our work, and have also shown an interest in attending bible classes and doing the bible courses once the centre is opened. At first Michael couldn't understand why everyone kept calling him "Simon" until he realized they had probably overheard him playing "Simon Says" with the kids!
Overall there are some very exciting developments underway in this vibrant little community, and we are blessed and privileged to be able to see and be a part of God's work here.
Michael & Lilandi
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