At the Arab container, the African-Russians sing. Standing on top of the ammunition box, Botha leads his congregation in a deep, booming voice. By his side, Alexei and Mikhail half attempt to join in and warble along in muted support.
"All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small—"
The South Africans finish the hymn with gusto.
"All things wise and wonderfullllllll—"
The Russians mumble. They do not know the words. Some of them mime.
"The Lllllord Goooood made them allllllllllllll."
The hymn ends and the impromptu church service continues.
Botha bows his head. "Let us pray."
The African-Russians bow their heads and close their eyes.
Botha takes a deep breath, pauses, and begins the prayer:
"Lord, we thank you. We thank you for bringing us to this place of white purity.
To fight the good fight for you, against those who are not pure. Against those
who are not good. Against those who are evil and those who are not made
in your divine image. We thank you for our newfound Russian friends.
We ask you to protect us all with your body armor of love."
Mikhail opens his eyes and lifts his head. Alexei does the same. They look at each other.
Mikhail mouths silently to Alexei, "body armor of love?"
Alexei shrugs, shakes his head and rolls his eyes. Both men bow their heads again and feign religious belief.
Botha continues,
"And to give us courage and strength to fire your bullets of faith into
the hearts of all sinners. To the Creator of all the trees and fields,
of all the farmers and their beasts, and of all the seas and their little fishes,
we ask you to judge us, Almighty Lord, and let any person here, today,
who has sinned, come forward, cast their stone, and confess their sins
to you now, Lord."
Botha pauses for effect, then continues,
"So we can beg your forgiveness and holy redemption against these sinners.
Come—step forward sinners."
His head remains bowed and his eyes shut. He waits.
Some of the Russian sinners are about to step forward. Just in time, Alexei looks up, frowns and shakes his head at them. They bow their heads again in respectful silence.
Several seconds go by. Botha finishes the prayer,
"Lord, we have no sinners here. Amen."
Everybody repeats, "Amen".
The prayer over, all the African-Russians open their eyes and lift their heads. They wait for Botha to end the service.
"You see, Alexei, the flock is willing." Botha beams.
Alexei nods. "God is working in many mystery ways."
"Indeed, Alexei, indeed." Botha launches into his finale.
"My brothers and sisters, before Adam and before Eve there was God. He
is eternal. Six thousand years ago, he chose to do something miraculous.
He created everything in six days. Yes, only six days. Everything you see
and touch and feel is God's work. But God is no fool. He is a clever God. He
gave us good. But He also gave us evil. I hear you ask, why did God give us
evil? He gave us evil to tempt us. To tempt us away from following His
teachings. To tempt us away from the good. And if we are weak, then we
will fall into temptation. Then we are banished from Heaven. Banished for
eternity. And then we wait. We wait for the Devil to take us, because we are
lost. The Devil profits from the lost and the weak. We are forced into his home.
And we all know what the Devil's house is called. Yes, my friends, the Devil's
house is called HELL."
Botha calls over to Pieter, "Come up here, my friend. Tell them what you saw."
Pieter steps forward and joins Botha on top of the ammunition box. He turns and addresses the congregation. "I saw Americans. Lots of them. They tried to kill me. They chased me down. I was lucky, and I escaped them. But they are out there now—somewhere. They will come for us, I am sure of it. And when they come for us, they will try and kill us too."
"You may go, Pieter."
Pieter returns back to the line.
Silence.
Botha says, "My friends, the Lord has spoken to me. He tells me we are the good. He tells me we will be saved. He tells me He will give us riches. He tells me the Americans are the bad and the evildoers. He tells me He will not protect the Americans. My friends, the Lord tells me to go now and do His work. Will you join me and do the Lord's work?"
The South Africans yell, "Yes—yes, we will!"
"I SAID, will you do the Lord's work with me?" Botha demands, raising his voice further.
This time all of the congregation shout, "YES!"
"The Lord tells me to kill evil. Will the good people who stand before me today kill those who are evil?"
The churchgoers shout, "KILL THE EVIL!"
"The Lord tells me that we will kill—and that we have to kill—Americans," Botha shouts.
All the African-Russians scream, "KILL—KILL THE AMERICANS."
