ALEXANDRA, South Africa (AP) — Pulling white robes trimmed in blue and green over their frayed clothes, worshippers at the Jerusalem Apostolic Church briefly transport themselves to a spiritual plane far from their township’s crammed rows of tin shacks, junkyards and carjackings.
Swirling, swaying, singing and drumming, about 30 men, women and children fill an elementary-school classroom with prayer and energy. Their words mix with the prayers spilling from nearby classrooms, where other small congregations have gathered for church.
Every week, poor South Africans flock to makeshift churches in garages, on hilltops, at parks — anywhere they can find a quiet corner of refuge from the daily grind of poverty and street crime.
The congregants of the Jerusalem Apostolic Church cover the teacher’s desk with a white sheet stained with oil and clumps of candle wax to create an altar piled with worn Bibles and topped with a paint-chipped candelabra.
Shoes removed, bare feet patter on the red linoleum tile as the congregants dance around a circle of drummers praising God and glide into a trance.
Eyes closed, some become overwhelmed and stumble as if on the verge of fainting. Fellow worshippers catch their fall, ease them to the ground where they cradle their heads and give them water to drink.
The drumbeats grow louder along with the rattle of an oil can that has been turned into a tambourine by cutting off its side and stringing bottle caps along a wire inside.
Faces glistening with sweat, one by one the congregants kneel and preach in rapid-fire words.
“I want to do lots of things for Jesus, because I know He does lots of things for me,” said Florence Mgandela, 47, who is a maid when she can find work. “I enjoy the church. It’s my life.”
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