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DustySpirit home

Fanny and his brother were up till near midnight putting fuel in the vehicles – not an easy process. We left at 5am from Gweru and drove along the main highway to Bulawayo and then on to Hwange. Oh, Justin’s wife came with us in the van that Justin drove. She is the one of us that has been through the town of Victoria Falls before, but not to see the sight.

The trip took longer than we thought and the van had a flat tire at one point, so we didn’t roll into the meeting place until 11:30am , with the service starting at 10. But surprise again – they were waiting for us! :-) They made no complaints, but only showered us with welcome, appreciation, and thanks to God. This, despite the fact that they are Tonga people, not Shona, neither of the Nyamutoras had been their before, and they had a man (Cleopas) who knew Fanny and Martha waiting by the main road several kilometers from the church so that he could direct us in. At that point, Melissa hopped on Irene’s lap so we could squeeze him in. The church meets in one of the classrooms in one of the building of a school in town. Imagine an Assembly of God congregation meeting in the next classroom over. There are as many as seven congregations meeting at this school. Talk about competition! They would be singing while someone from our group was trying to speak, and I thought Claudio was going to have to battle with the fire-and-brimstone preacher next door (don’t think Claudio would have a problem winning out though). Anyway, this Hwange congregation sang special songs for us and thanked us very formally and profusely, though I had trouble making out a lot of what the interpreter said from the back of the room. Afterwards, so many of the men wanted our names and addresses. I fear I might be swamped with mail from Africa and I wouldn’t know who it was coming from – but that would be fun anyway. The service went until after 2pm I think.

Windows Media Video clip(s):

Claudio preaches 1:46