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Last year, I had the privilege to preach in the tent for the Sunday service. It was like preaching under the big top! I must have done well enough because they asked me to preach again this year. Not only is it amazing to preach to them, but this year it was also my 33rd birthday!

My message was based on “the wordless book” which explains the Gospel in a few colored pages. I gave a variant of this message a week and a half before at Mountaintop for a family service, and although I didn’t use Play-doh like I did then, I think the message came across clearly.

While I was waiting for my turn to preach, a young boy came over to me and was hanging out for awhile. He ended up just laying on my chest and falling asleep! I wish I knew what his name was, but it was a pretty cool beginning to the service for me.

When I first started preaching, there was a woman translating for me. Her name is Anna, and she has a special place in the heart of our group because she named a child after someone in our group, Austin. She translated for about two minutes, and then another gentleman came up to translate, his name is Pastor George. I had not met him before, but we were a great team preaching together. There’s just something about having a shadow, someone else with energy that really pumps me up while I preach!

I found out the next day why he wasn’t up there in the very beginning with me. It turns out that he was driving to the village (he lives about 20 miles away) and there was a car coming around the corner that hit him, and his car went into a ditch! It took about two hours for someone to come and help pull him out of the ditch, and then he came straight to the village. Needless to say he was a bit frazzled for being so late, but I didn’t even know it!

I mentioned on Day 3 about the feeling of electricity in my hands while I was praying, and I felt it again while I was preaching. It was only there for a short time, but I could definitely feel it.

Remember Austin? This child is probably two years old now, and he wouldn’t stay in his seat during my preaching. Well it turned out he was walking around the whole time during my message, going from person to person. He even at some points was hanging out by me! I only noticed him once, and apparently I almost stepped on him a few other times! (I just noticed, he’s in the top picture by the pole, with his back turned to the camera!)

After the service, the group headed out to a place called God’s Window, which is a view of a good portion of South Africa. When I was describing it to my wife, she said, “kind of like Rock City when you look out on seven states?” I guess you could say that, minus all of the gnomes! In the picture with me is my roommate on the trip, Chad.

Needless to say, after a day like this, I was whooped! People ask me how I thought the sermon went, and really I never know what to say. I usually say the things I planned to say, and other things I didn’t plan to say, but I have no idea what sort of impact it makes on people. The people in my group are always for loving and encouraging about it, and I really appreciate their feedback. I guess my prayer always is for people to be impacted more by the word of God, rather than the vehicle he is using to say it!

It was another great day hanging out in the village. this year’s trip was different from last year in that we did not have one big specific project to work on. Last time we were constantly working on the orphanage, now called “The Place of Hope.” This time was spent running around with the kids, watching the well get dug, and then doing some small gardens.

The well is coming along nicely at this point. They have finished drilling, and have started to put some other pipes down the hole., The most exciting part of the well for today is to watch the guy welding a few of the pipes together.

I had the chance to head out with a team to dig a few small gardens for some of the church members in need. In previous years, when gardens were being developed, they covered a larger area and had a drip system installed. The drip system consisted of a bucket and some hoses along the ground. The problem is that people were stealing the buckets, making the drip system useless.

This year, Philip from Build the Future discovered a way to make smaller gardens which still produced enough food for a few people, without taking up a lot of space or using much equipment. The gardens are about 3 feet square with some chicken wire around it (to keep out the chickens of course!). Then we planted about 18 seedlings of spinach, onion, and maybe another plant, as well as a row of seeds for beans or squash. In the middle of the garden we place two 1 liter bottles with the bottoms cut off and holes punched in the lid. Then the people can pour the dish water or laundry water into those bottles in the morning and at night in order to water the whole garden.

Then back at the village I had some time to run around with the kids. I started to make lion sounds and chased after the smaller children tickling them when I caught them. I’m sure it was quite a sight to see when I had 30-40 kids running around me making lion sounds at me and trying to chase me! Whenever they’d catch me and started tickling me I’d make obnoxious laughing noises!

Although I was grateful last year to work on a project like the orphan house, I felt like I made a better connection with the community and village this year. It was nice to just be there, rather than having to do something specific.

Mati is the Shangaan word for water. Cork used to get their water from a nearby river until Cholera broke out in January and 15 people died. Since that time, the government has trucked in water for the people to use. Sometimes the JoJo’s (the tanks used to store the water) run empty until trucks can come in and fill them. There are two JoJo’s in the community center, however since they are on “private property” the people who fill the tanks were requiring the church to pay for the water.

As a group, we have been burdened by the need for fresh water for the village and the community center. Over the last few months, we have held fundraisers and asked for donations to the well. A few weeks before the trip happened, we received a large final donation from some friends in Birmingham to get fresh water from the ground.
On our first day in the village, the drilling tuck showed up, and a celebration ensued.

For several hours, the constant sound of drilling spread through the village. A large crowd gathered to watch, and several rumors went around about what exactly would happen once the drill hit water. Some said it would gush out of the top like an oil well, others said you wouldn’t see much of anything.

When they hit the water, it just oozed out of the hole, and looked like muddy water. It was interesting to see the kids playing in it, poking it with sticks, and making piles of mud out of it.

They drilled about 70 meters down, around 227 feet. It would take several more days to get the pump installed, but needless to say it was quite exciting!

This is one of the best parts of the trip. You leave the hotel, pass by the banana fields, several some shopping and residential areas, and then you make the left turn into Cork. You drive on bumpy dirt roads, making a right at the tavern, a left t the end of the street, and then you come up to the church. Last year in this spot next to the church, there was a giant tent where the service was held. This year, on the porch connected to the church, lay a giant cow, being slaughtered. I have to laugh because for the new people, this was their first experience with the church!

We then pulled up to the Community Care Center, where they put the tent this year, and a rush of children, men and gogo’s (grandmothers/mothers) come to greet you. It is like heaven. Big smiles all over the place, you receive the secret handshake and a hug from everyone, and you feel a warmth that you rarely feel anywhere else.

We then gathered in a big circle where they sing and do a little dance, and we clap along, not understanding a single word they are singing about. In spite of that, the language of love is being spoke loud and clear, and doesn’t need any translation to understand it.

Sharon, the wife of Pastor Simon asks me to pray. I can honestly say that I felt something during that prayer that I’ve never felt before. As I prayed, it felt like there was electricity running through my hands and feet. I can’t explain how it was there, nor can I manufacture that feeling on my own again, but it literally felt like someone took a live wire and held it to my hands and feet. When I finished praying, Gwen, the leader of our trip, was standing next to me, and I asked her to hold my hand, because this feeling was so strong.

The rest of the day was a blur. There was not much work done by us, but it was spent laughing with the kids, hanging with the gogos, and of course, drilling for water!

More to come in part 2:

Unfortunately, my updates from the trip did not get posted as I would have liked, so I will recap my trip over the next few days as I try to remember what went on.

The trip to the hotel which lasted from May 13, 12pm central time to May 14, 5:30pm CT, was for the most part uneventful/ There were no problems connecting from Birmingham to Atlanta to Dakar to Johannesburg. I don’t sleep much on the plane, as I try to stay awake as long as I can until my head hits the pillow in the hotel, (which was past midnight local time!).

I did overhear some interesting conversations from the 20 members in our group who was spread out around the plane. You would always hear the questions, “where are you going? why are you going there? what are you going to do there?” Followed by the statements, “that’s a great thing you are doing, I’m sure the people there will be appreciative.” That’s when the people of the group share the Gospel, we’re not going to do something nice, we’re doing it because God first loved us, and we need to show his love to them, (and also to you, fellow plane-rider!)
I realized on this trip how sheltered I am in the Christian culture of the south. I heard the word “karma” mentioned at least 20 times on the plane, where I probably haven’t heard it 5 times within the last couple of years. Even I flight attendant I spoke with mentioned karma to describe her beliefs which is a Roman Catholic background from New Orleans.

People want to acknowledge an overall scoreboard of rights and wrongs, and hope to be on the “right” side of that scoreboard. Our trip scores some heavy points for the right side, whereas being mean to the flight attendants will take some of those points away. Lost in this conversation of karma is Romans 3:23, all have sinned and are falling short of the glory of God. One sin, one wrong, one mistreatment of a flight attendant puts us in a wrong relationship with God, and no points on the right side of the scoreboard will fix it, only a relationship with Christ, that covers over those sins.

I pray that some were impacted by our testimony and love, and realize who Christ is, so we can truly be on the right side.

Attached below is a pic of our weary group after arriving in Joberg.

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Please go to http://paulpodraza.posterous.com/ to see updates, for some reason it is not forwarding like it should!

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It has been quite a month of preaching, schoolwork and family time! My wife Tracy said last night how amazing it has been just in the age range and culture differences that I have been/will be preaching to in just over a month's time.  Here's the rundown:

April 8: Preaching Class - "What's On Your Table?"
April 12: Easter Sunday at Rocky Ridge Retirement (ages 70 and above!)
April 18-19: Preached three times at Mountaintop's College & Career Beach Retreat
April 21: Preaching Class - "Diapers to Diplomas"
April 22: Mountaintop Wednesday Service: "Life off of the Mountain"
April 26: Rocky Ridge Retirement
April 28: Men's Fraternity: "What is the Gospel?"
May 2: Rock Ridge Retirement
May 6: Mountaintop Wednesday Night Family Service: (5 year olds to 75'ish year olds) "The Wordless Book"
May 9: Rocky Ridge Retirement
May 17: Preaching in Cork, South Africa, with possibly preaching three nights of revival!

So that's 13 opportunities to preach, possibly 16 within a month and a half.

Not all of my sermons are up on my "Pastor Paul" website, but you can see and hear others as well. 

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