Allow me to share about my friend David Mashele. He is the only black member of the Kleipot community. For the last six months David has been an integral part of our lives and rhythms. God taught us a lot through our friend David. Let me share two incidents.

A few weeks ago David washed his car before our Sunday service. His yellow Opal Kadet is the furthest thing from a luxury car that you can imagine. Although his vehicle is not worth much, I’ve never seen it dirty. So there was David; forty minutes before our worship service – washing his car. One of the members of our community shared with me his experience.

As he drove into the community centre where we meet he saw David and immediately thought, “This is Sunday, can’t he wash his car on another day?” With these smug thought broiling in his mind he climbed out of his car and entered the building. And then God spoke light into the darkness. It went something like this, “His car is worth R4000 and yours R250 000, when was the last time that you washed your car?” Naturally my friend repented (and hopefully washed his car).

The other incident happened during the singing part of our service. David comes from a black Pentecostal background. His church roots coupled with his enthusiasm and passion for higher decibels makes for an interesting mixture. So during singing a few heads always turn towards David; he sings with passion and almost always off key. A few people have commented on David’s wild abandonment towards God. His unrefined passion excels when we compare it to our civilized manner of worship.

David left for his hometown of Venda today. Tomorrow I’ll tell you why …