Songs of Praise (without the aid of Aled Jones)

Picture the scene - we went to church yesterday for the first time and as we came over the hill we could see people threading their way from all directions to be together. Folks with umberellas for shade walking down from the townships, folks all piled in to the back of pick-up trucks, gangs of little kids running along the roadside, it was lovely. Our children were all mouth and no trousers about how they were going to make friends and how they were so cool but I could see they were a bit nervous. They needn't have been. We were barely in the building before they were in the midst of a gaggle of little black boys - one with a Ben 10 T shirt! These kids brought tears to my eyes, they were so sweet and friendly. Gibson had his arms around my boys, and stayed in the middle of our family for the whole morning. He translated bits of Sesotho songs for them, held their drinks and told them to shut their eyes when praying (!) and even held Evie's sore leg for a while. After their lessons outside under the gazebo in the baking heat, they played football together - the moment Isaac's been waiting for since we bought him a shiny new ball to bring and share here.

As for us, well we really enjoyed church and I especially loved the main bloke singing and dancing about like a loon, doing high kicks and mucking around whilst singing his worship songs - it was such FUN it just made me laugh and laugh. Col shouted in my ear that this guy, Sam, was in prison before he became a christian, he'd been deeply involved in the ANC. He and many others there paint a picture of what the gospel is all about - full restoration, changed lives and great big grins - an overflow of the joy that can only come from God. Happy clappy? You betcha!