Oh boy was today was awesome! I didn't expect as wonderful a trip to Bethel as it turned out to be.
The South Africa branch is much bigger than I anticipated. They have a MAN printer and are expecting a second one. They are using fixed up shipping containers to temporarily house some international construction workers. They will soon be remodeling the assembly hall and building a new printers. They have about 1,000 permanent Bethelites.
Our tour guide was Don. He is from Canada. Don and his wife and served as international construction workers over much of South America and Eastern Europe. He is a self described rebel and deviated from the traditional tour a bit. He said that here in South Africa it is perfectly acceptable to say "Hell no!" and "damn!" but don't dare say "crap". So throughout our tour, he'd randomly use those expressions.
We were invited to eat lunch with the bethel family. What a treat! We even got homemade ice cream and chocolate sauce.
We asked if bibles were available here. He said, "No comment" with a smirk. So evidently every Bethelite knows what is going on with the Bibles are keeping it on the down low.
At lunch, I met a sister named Lisa. Coincidently she has a nephew in the Rushes congregation. She asked what our plans are for the remainder of our trip. I me tinned how desperately we want to go to Ukutula which is a place owned by brothers where you can interact with lions. She said she'd see if she could find someone to go with us as it is nearly an hour away. We didn't expect her to find anyone as bethelites are very busy. Later on, a sister approached us saying that she would like to take us! Evidently Lisa had gone to the room of bethelites shouting out trying to find someone for us. So, we get to go tomorrow! I didn't think it would work out but now it is thanks to our amazing brotherhood.
Also, in regards to our brotherhood, during our tour somehow the subject of golf came up. Ben and Jayson have been wanting to go golfing here but it seemed unlikely for several reasons. Don, our tour guide, enjoys golfing. At the end of our day, as we are about to get back on the busses to go back to our hotel, don brought up a brother to us. Don explained that this brother loves golfing and wanted to go golfing with ben and jayson right then! So only Kimmy and I boarded the bus while the boys left with this brother to go golfing. This brother is the shipping overseer so I wonder if he shut down his department for the afternoon.
Oh, and there are animals on the property. We saw a diker and several lesbucks. Funny names. I found a theme in them but I think that is a coincidence.
After lunch, the brothers arranged for part of the branch's choir to perform us. After singing a few Kingdom songs, they performed some traditional songs. It was so enjoyable. The choir conductor really got into the performance. Some of the Bethelites in the audience joined in on the yelping part of the songs. In Paradise, maybe they'll teach me some of these songs and dances. One song was entitled "help me" and was about a lion chasing someone.
I feel more spoiled than ever before. Everything we dream of here has happened. We were even hoping to be "adopted" by a local family to have dinner with them. That we get that privilege as a result of meeting a family yesterday in service. Jehovah is so good to us and has blessed us with more special moments than can ever be recorded on a blog.
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