Today I was speaking at Getacho Fellowship Church, led by Pastor Wilson. Like yesterday, this church is in an out-of-the-way place. Off the main road and down narrow, unsealed, red clay tracks. When we came to the turn-off for the church, the road was even narrower and led up a small but fairly steep hill. Recent rains had turned the clay into a bog. Our first attempt to climb the hill failed half way up, so Adams put the car into reverse and started back down in an effort to get a good run up.
Unfortunately his efforts landed us in one of the boggiest parts, and we were stuck. Pastor Wilson and several other pastors who were there for the meeting ran down in their suits, and proceeded to push till we were out. Adams backed the car as far as he could, and took a run at the hill. This time we made it up the first part, but then got stuck again further up. More pushing and finally we were at Wilson’s house, which was as far as we were going to be able to go. From there it was a narrow, slippery walking track for quite a way up to the church.
First pic shows the road (it doesn’t look nearly as bad as it was) and the second shows me being assisted down the path by a couple of the church ladies.
When we arrived at the church building, there were only a few people there, but more wandered in by dribs and drabs, in typical African fashion, till by the time I was called up to minister the building was almost full, with around fifty people. Following on from my resolution yesterday to never assume that everyone in the congregation is saved, I gave a salvation call – and three people responded to give their lives to Christ! Awesome! Also around ten received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. So excited about what God is doing here.
On the way back, we found the main town area full of people and cows – a cattle market was in progress. But of course you can’t leave an opportunity like that to just cows, can you? So every other kind of market stall was also there, spilling over the street and leaving very little room for cars to get through. Yet I didn’t see any road rage or nastiness, just drivers grabbing any square centimetre they could find and forcing their way into it. Total traffic chaos, but it seems to work.
Tomorrow I don’t have any platform ministry, just going to an orphanage to pray for the kids. Then on Saturday I have a rest day before ministering at the church here on Sunday. At least, that’s how it stands at the moment … but of course, this is Africa, and that could change at a moment’s notice.