Church hunting

I never thought looking for a church to worship at would be such a hassle. Churches in Botswana are all the same, its just the people that are different, so if you need a church in Botswana, you will choose one mainly based on who goes where, rarely on location or whether it meets your spiritual needs.

Well, Cape Town is different. For starters, language is the first thing. When I first moved here, we stayed in the Northern Suburbs, and we had a church 10 minutes away from our flat. We got there and it was Afrikaans day. We left for a nearby church that was English, but it felt like we were gatecrushing someone's family day, not church. After that we decided we would look for another church, I have been raised to believe that you go to the church nearest you, so I was going for that initially.

The second church we tried was in the 'location'. I am not sure if there is a nice word for 'location', the locations here are way different from the ones in Botswana, actually, there are a very South African thing and black South Africans are proud of their locations. It was a fantastic church, it was vibey, the singing was great and the sermon was just awesome. BUT...... half the things were in Xhosa or Xhosa english and I struggled to get any value from the sermon. The people were very nice, very warm, but the fact that I did not get what the preacher was trying to say bothered me way to much to want to go there for the people and the ambience. That was not what church was for (for me anyway). Plus, it was a bit of a distance to drive, I didnt want to drive all that way just to meet and greet people for a few minutes after church.

So it was back to the drawing board. We went to the English speaking church near us where we were literally visitors for close to a year. Then we found another English speaking church, it was no where near where we stayed, but it was nice and warm, the sermons were good (I could hear them), the people were warm and welcoming. I was starting to enjoy it, until we moved so far away that it didnt make sense to try drive every Sabbath, so we had to start looking again.

We eventually settled for a young English speaking church, but it was more stiff than cold, actually, it wasnt cold, just so seeped in doing things in old ways that didnt suit most people but people just went along with it. It isnt that far from where we stay, we have friends there so it works/worked. Plus, it had a lot of activities so that was a good.

:-) Then we decided to visit another church and we were blown away :-). It was good, this church lacked nothing, 10 minutes in and you feel like you really are in your Father's house. We still go to the church that we settled for, but once in a while when we want to belong to a movement and a family, we wake up extra early and start the drive to our new favourite sanctuary. We dont know a lot of people in that church, but it doesnt matter there, it feels like we are home, not with friends, but with family.