August 20

ENTABINI

    We were picked up today by Pastor Albert Chetty’s son around 1:00 pm for the 20 minute ride to the Entabini Church. When we arrived, the women of the church were resting from their food preparation work and were sitting outside. It was a beautiful day and because there was construction work going on inside the church building, the chairs were moved outside for the afternoon program. There were a few children arriving as we came. We also saw Precosh again – the man recently released from Prison who I had a chance to talk with two weeks ago. This time our visit was very short but he did tell us a candle joke before he left. If two candles of the same height or weight are lit at the time, which one will burn up faster? The answer is neither. Candles burn down, not up.
       While the women were talking and Darlene was visiting with them, I went over and started to talk with the children. Only a few of the boys spoke English but that was okay because I again taught them how to wipe a smile off their faces and showed them the magic of the digital camera. They laughed and smiled. Several other children came and we seemed to ‘warm up’ to me and to each other. A few of the children were in their school uniform but several were in old clothes. I got the impression again that clothing was badly needed. Pastor Albert later told me that most of the clothing the children had on was given to them by the church. The rest of the children arrived and Pastor Chetty organized them to do several dances for us. They seemed to have some fun doing the dances. The last group of girls sang us a beautiful song of worship. It was so beautiful. Pastor Chetty invited Darlene to tell a story and she did a wonderful job explaining how surprised Zachaeus was that Jesus wanted to visit him at his home. Following Darlene’s very enthusiastic telling of the story—I have photo’s to prove it—one of the children prayed in Zulu and then got into a line for the soup and bread. Several of the children did not finish their bowls of soup and pulled out plastic bags and poured the soup and bread into them. I got the impression they were taking some food home to the family. After the meal several of the kids stayed after and visited with Timothy and I. We sat around talking about the meaning of our names, and I taught them a funny song about coming to America. One little girl really liked the song and began to sing it. I didn’t get the impression they knew where America was. One boy asked how much it cost to fly here on an airplane. Before the few remaining children left, they asked me how old I was. I told them to tell me how old they thought I was. One little girl said sixty. :-( They kept shouting out numbers until one girl asked if they should go up or down. I said down and they finally counted to 45. After this they wanted to see the inside of my arms. They were surprised I was so white. Then, one little girl insisted on pulling up the legs of my pants to see my white legs. We all had a laugh!
     Pastor Chetty and his wife Jaya took us to their home for tea and fellowship. We talked about leadership development, church planting and their vision. After tea we were given some ladyfingers—fresh little bananas right off the tree in their back yard. What a refreshing blessing that was! After a while Jaya brought out chicken sandwiches and more tea. We were blessed by their wonderful Indian hospitality again!

Pastor Albert and Jaya Chetty Entabini Community Church P.O. Box 352 Luxmi, 3207 South Africa Home address: Pastor Albert and Jaya Chetty 62 Woodpecker Road Mountview Pietermaritburg, KZN 3201 South Africa PH: 033 387 6615 Cell: 073 1976 211 E-mail chettyy@nu.ac.za. In subject line write: “for Albert” This is an excellent place to send clothing of all kinds for children, any time but especially as a Christmas gift to Jesus. The laws of South Africa require that the package be paid for on this end so please send some money (about $10-20.00) with a note inside the package with Pastor Chetty’s name on it. It is okay to send US dollars. You can also arrange to have money put in the Church bank by wiring it to the branch and to the account number listed below. Bank Contact information (if you can wire them some money) NEDBANK OF SOUTH AFRICA Branch Number 137 225 Account number 137 202 6347