Report 4
October 22, 2000
Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, October 22, 2000
There is going to church and there is GOING TO CHURCH!!! Be there at 9:00 sharp to meet the people said Reverend Spiwo, and of course we were!
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Church starts at 10:00 but not really. Guests must come early so that as the congregation walks toward the church they can see you and come up and introduce themselves in their very finest attire and welcome you. Believe me that by 10:00 we had met a lot of members. One could say that you have really been in South Africa if you have tasted Ostrich, sipped South African liqueur called Amarolu, and attended services for two and half hours in the J.L.Swane Presbyterian Church in Gugulethu. This congregation can sing, can pray, and can sway, and they do it for about an hour 
with a few announcements sprinkled in so people can catch their breath or equilibrium. I can testify to the fact that Pat Murphy and Jim Cassidy can sway and pray with the best of them!
All this JOY....All this SADNESS, it comes to you in waves. One minute they are singing and the next they stop while a beautiful young well-dressed mother brings her two year old daughter to the front of the church and holds her up in her arms so Spiwo and everybody can prayer for her. She has AIDS. Spiwo has taught them all to hold her and love and pass her through the congregation to show love and acceptance. Then we sang some more.
When the sermon time came, we were all invited up to the front to speak to the whole congregation. Pat Murphy and Leone Flaa were wonderful while I lost it and choked up because I knew why I was there.
Certainly the highlight of the service was for Spiwo to offer the pulpit to Fr. Cassidy. Jim preached and as he did so, he spoke slowly enough so that Spiwo, standing beside him could translate it to Xhosa. The church became very quiet and here is part of what they heard, first in English and then in Xhosa....
"We have seen you from Table Mountain and experienced the presence of God. We have experienced the Holy Spirit in the Winds off Cape Point, we have held your children, we have experienced many of you in your homes and in conversation. .........We know you have stood tall against Apartheid, you have stood tall in the struggle against this poverty. The one God that we all worship wants us to stand tall in this fight against HIV/AIDS. Please take care of the needs of the sick and show them love. There is no room for Shame. We need to educate everyone about this disease. If we can reach the children with education, we may be able to save them....."
There was more but for those of us sitting in the chairs what we saw were two men, one white and the other black and with their joint voices they stood side-by-side speaking to the gospel's message of love. No finer sermon was preached anywhere in Cape Town that morning.
Sunday in Cape Town meant an invitation to Reverend Spiwo's home for Sunday Dinner. It was a South African Norman Rockwell event. Children on the best behavior, father at the head of the table, a plate of chickens to be carved, and bowls of vegetables to be passed around and around, just like it use to be.
When dessert had been finished and the table cleared, Spiwo simply asked if we would mind visiting with one of his parishioners who was dying of AIDS in her home. We drove over and walked through rubble and broken stones into a fish-house sized dwelling. There sat a beautifully young and shy woman. She has lost one child and has two others. Her husband is actually sicker than she is but few know it. He cannot go to the doctor because he is afraid he will lose his job and he doesn't know who would care for the children. The four of us just sat and held hands with the family, Jim asked if we could offer a prayer. There we sat, four Minnesotans, a frightened mother and her relatives in this indescribable hovel of home. There are no medicines for her but maybe Spiwo's Zethl will be able to look in on her in a couple of days.
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