So we’ve gone to a local church in our area of Nsoko called Mbutu Metropolitian Church a couple of times now. The church is wonderful to us. They’re always so welcoming and if our translator isn’t with us, someone else will translate for us. A lot of the kids at this church go to one of the care points that we’re working with. But one thing is obvious within minutes, there’s only 3 or 4 men in the church (and that’s on a good day.)
The men usually show up late, one week almost all of them left early, and they all sit together on the back row. I usually forget there’s men even there except once in awhile one will give a testimony (which strangley enough, has never been translated for us.)
One of the go-gos (grandmothers) will preach and honestly if one of these ladies didn’t step up, there probably wouldn’t be a church there. Like in most areas of the community, the go-gos seem to take care of everything.
This past Sunday one of team Salt’s guys, Andrew, probably made a huge impact on some of the kids at that church just by showing up. Two of the little girls in front of him would turn completely around just to watch everything he did. And one of my favorite little boys from one of the care points crawled under the pews to sit in the row in front of him, just to be closer and stare at Andrew. If these kids have a dad, their dad’s don’t come to church with them. They don’t get to see many men really participating in church.
In America I never thought someone just showing up for church could influence anyone. But here, when a man goes to church and participates, the kids (especially little boys) can’t take their eyes off of him.
Positive male influence around Nsoko is so needed! Most of these kids don’t have dads and the ones who do probably don’t have positive role models in them. So please remember during your prayers to ask God to bring Godly men into the Nsoko area to pour love into these kids.
**Okay, so now admit it, you thought I was going to write about something totally different didn’t you? 🙂 **
