Submitted by: B.S. and H.S. who migrated from Pretoria, South Africa to Johannesburg, South Africa in 2012 to join two other couples who had migrated at the time.
What is the spiritual highlight of your migration?
The young working couples are very involved here. We are bearing the burden and there are few saints here who aren’t very involved. It’s wonderful to be in such an atmosphere of mutual pursuing and gospel. The working brothers even go on campus every Friday to preach the gospel.
Is there anything else you would like to explain or share?
It’s difficult for the married sisters with young children. We now meet in districts in the homes and it’s not always too clear how the one sister can be released to really be in the meeting. We really hope we can get more full-timers to bring the students into their homes.
Sister,
Just a suggestion but early in the church-life here, the common practice was for the sisters to rotate babysitting in their home, a different home than where the meeting was held. The saints would bring their children fed and in the case of the younger children, dressed and ready for bed. It was understood that the kids would lay down at a certain time and would be asleep by the time the meeting was over. If there are too many children then maybe two sisters would babysit. However, there were usually no more than three families to a group, children were around the same ages in each group so they could play for a while with those of their own age. This worked out very well for many years. It was so much better than for the parents having to switch off, allowing couples to be in the meeting together, sharing a burden for a new one and mutually inviting them into their home for more fellowship.
This also provided an opportunity for building among the couples, the sisters, and of course for the Lord to apply to cross to so many opinions. Much growth and grace was gained by the Lord in us in those days and in our locality, the pillars of the church-life are the older saints who endured/enjoyed the Lord’s hand in those days.
Grace to you saints.
Jack has perfectly described our experience. The children enjoyed “babysitting” so much that if one of my children was unable to go because of illness, the others would beg to go anyway. We sisters had to coordinate in life and through prayer, so it was a building experience for us as well. Now that our children are grown, they have fond memories of their experience in the babysitting groups, and have maintained their relationship with the others who were in our groups.