Day 8

Our Friday started off with lunch with pastor Zweli, his wife Pastor Susan, and their granddaughter Michaela. We ate at a restaurant called Maxis. Pastor Zweli runs House of Harvest Church in Midrand. We had a beautiful lunch filled with lots of interesting information regarding the community, South African culture, and the religion.

Here is a picture of the team, our driver Vussie, and Pastor Zweli, Pastor Susan, and Michaela.

After lunch, we headed out to Soweto to volunteer at a local orphanage, called Othandweni Centre. We walked through the facilities and then we headed to the nursery where we got to spend time with children ages 0-4. Our hearts broke for the children at the orphanage and it was hard to leave. The children were so bright and affectionate. One of the kids, named Tapo, even became attached to our driver Vussie, running to him at first sight asking to be carried.

From the Othandweni Centre we headed to Friday Night Church at Urban Life Church back in Midrand. It reminded us of Saddleback! The congregation was about 70% White, 20% Black, and 10% Other. The staff was very friendly and every person we talked to there knew who Rick Warren was, about Saddleback, and PDL books! Many of the Pastors even visited Saddleback and attended the PDL conference held at Saddleback Lake Forest 2 years ago.

Above is Pastor Jono Wegerle during his sermon on Amazing Time.

Here's something Tayen Kim wrote about Pastor Zweli:

                Meeting Pastor Zweli was a true blessing.  In God’s short article of  “Johannesburg,” it seems that under the thesis statement of “I love this city,” our meeting today with Pastor Zweli of House of Harvest Ministries in Midrand is a significant supporting detail. 

                Much of the descriptions he gave us of his ministry, as well as that of other churches gave us deeper insight into some of the more general pictures we were painted by other people.  It seems that Pastor Zweli’s ministry works hard to cater to an array of the different ethnic groups residing in midrand.  To this end, they even research into different praise songs in different languages.  Let’s not forget that South Africa has about 11 official languages.  That’s what I call dedication.

                As our team sat in the middle of a road-side diner, which very much reminded me of Denny’s in the States, Pastor Zweli shared with us, in his gently rumbling voice, that his approach to ministry is to only focus on what the Lord wants and where the Holy Spirit is taking them and that the rest is up to God.  We nodded in praise to God, as well as in agreement with Pastor Zweli as he expressed his lack of interest in numbers or fame.  When we asked him how he gets his members to be involved in ministries, he answered that all they do is preach the Word of God and pray for the church’s growth in maturity.  No wonder the Lord has blessed them and brought them more and more people to whom to minister.