Meeting people in their homes

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we divided our team into two groups and participated in relationship evangelism.  This is where we go to an area in a town and we knock on doors.  Most of the people invite us in, and we spend time getting to know them.  Idealy we spend the morning with them, and then go back in the afternoon to continue our visit.  If they have things they are doing, we offer to help, if not we just visit.  We ask questions and they ask questions of us.  South African culture is far different than American culture.  In South Africa, there are no questions that are out of line.  It is not considered rude to ask any kind of question.  If they don’t want to answer, they won’t.  If there was a young person at home, they could speak English, otherwise we had an interpreter with us.

Today, my group went to what looked like a more well to do house.  It was larger than most of the houses in the area.  The standard house in the poorer areas of any town was 21 feet by 18 feet, and consisted of 4 rooms, a kitchen/eating room, a living room (most houses had a television, some would run them off a 12 volt car battery because they had no electricity in the home), and 2 bedrooms.  If the house was larger, they might have a third bedroom, or a larger eating area.    The bathroom was almost always outside.  In all the houses we visited, I never saw an indoor toilet.  

The house today was one of the few larger houses in Qwa Qwa.  They had 3 dogs – a sign of wealth – a calf and a goat were tethered outside and they had a huge garden.  This was the only home we visited in our three days that had a dog, and they had 3.  When we arrived, the woman was busy staining the cement walk around her house.  Muriel stepped right up and offered to sweep the walk ahead of her staining it.  The lady used a rag in some kind of red homemade stain.  Muriel was sweeping with a round straw broom with a handle about 12 inches long and the broom part was about 12 inches long.    We talked a little while she finished the job.  Then we went inside and she started to prepare a drink for us.  When Andy and I came in, she told us we had to go into the other room turn on the television and wait.  Men could not work in the kitchen.  So, Andy and I sat on a leather like couch covered with clear plastic.  There really wasn’t much on the tv.  Most South Africans get their television programs through satalite.  They pay the government so much a year for a smart card, and that card goes in the receiver in the house and the cost of the card, determined what channels you received.  There is no free television in South Africa. 

About 15 minutes later, the women came in with hot water, tea bags and cookies (crackers).  We made the tea and the woman was shocked when some of us didn’t put sugar in our tea.  She was so surprised she said, “With no sugar, what does it taste like?”  I thought that was a silly question.  If you wondered what it tasted like, then why didn’t you try it without sugar.  But that thought never seemed to have entered her mind, because she couldn’t comprehend why anyone would ever drink tea without sugar. 

We were able to ask her some questions about her family and husband.  She had one daughter, and her husband was a police officer in Qwa Qwa.  That helped explain the better home and dogs.  She said they attended a local church, that had a bishop, but she didn’t really know much about what they believed.  By now it was time to go and we prayed for her, invited her to come to church with us on Sunday.  A very interesting beginning to our day.