More Love

I’ve found my self in this world of electric fences, barbed wire, burglar bars, tazers, and pepper spray. I wish it were so easy to just go outside for a walk in the fresh African breeze and rest assured that no one would come and attack me.

I am white.

I am female.

I am American.

I am vulnerable.

There’s something leery about the state of vulnerability that I have found myself in. I am a prime target. That’s hard to come to terms with. I’ve never had to think so much of my safety; I’ve never not had to trust someone because of what they could do to me.

I’m tired of thinking. I’m tired of thinking constantly as if I am not an American.

Tired of having to think about every cultural difference that I find myself in. I’m emotionally exhausted from the news, the stories from others, the ladies down the street that were brutally beaten and raped to death, the older gentlemen who is the owner of a B&B just down the street who was robbed and beat. I’m tired of this being my reality, I’m bothered that this has become “normal” for South Africa. Everyone knows someone who has been robbed, car jacked, murdered or raped.

It is hard to process all of this. Part of me wants to become numb to these stories in order to move on, but I don’t want to get used to the injustice that I am facing everyday. I’m trying to get to a point where I can deal with it. I need to find a way to cope with it.

Since when did hate become normal? It makes me think of the song by Black Eyed Peas, Where is the love? But seriously, have we become so far in our sin that we don’t hold life as a precious gift from God?

In the States you can have a bit of confidence that nothing terribly bad will happen to you as long as you aren’t involved in bad things. Yes there is the rare occurrence of innocent lives being taken in the States but not to this extreme. It doesn’t matter who you are, there’s a mentality of “if you have what I want I will kill you to get it”.

You can’t even help an injured person on the side of the road; they may be faking it until some good Samaritan comes along hoping to help and they pull a knife on them just to take their car and money. True story.

If something were to ever happen to me in the States, I know who to call and know they would be there within minutes. I can’t think like that here. First of all, it’s a waste of time if you call the police here, and there is only one advanced paramedic for each province. I live in two worlds…the world (Africa) I live in and the world (America) I came from.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. But I can’t let my fear consume me. God has his reason and purpose for me to be here. I must be obedient to move when he asks me to move and be still when he asks me to be still.

I wish I could look through the eyes of God to see what he sees. I wish I knew what it felt like to see your creation; your children live like they do, choosing death over life. No regard to love, only regard to self. If only we loved like Jesus did, how this world would be so different. There is no time for hate.

“He who does not love abides in death”- 1 John 3:14b

Do you see yourself in her?

Sandy was telling me about an experience she had at the chemist (pharmacist) yesterday. Sandy had gone their to get cold and flu medicine for the children at Hani Park because there’s a bad bug going around. Sandy let the checkout lady know that it was for the children because they give discounts to not-for-profits. The lady was Afrikaans (white) and quite chunky, all she said was “I admire you for doing that-taking medicine to those people, because I hate them- they are nothing more than animals”.

Do you see yourself in her? Have you ever thought you were superior to someone because of your class, race, or where you grew up. What makes a pharmacy checkout lady any better then a small child in Hani Park who has the flu? Were we not all created by the same God? What if the Afrikaans lady had been born into a squatter camp? We would all be going through the same plight had we been born in that type of an environment. How shameful! As disgusted as I am with her response, I see a lot of her in a lot of people around me. If only we had more love and less hate we could reach so many more people for Christ.

We have to look at these people as human beings, not animals. You would dig through trash too, to find any kind of food to feed your family if you had no hope, no home, no job, and not government aid.

“We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” 1 John 16-18

If you claim to be a Christian you have made a decision that resurrects you from death to life, and a turning of hate to love.

A lack of love indicates you are spiritually dead. Are you indifferent to the needs of others? Satan’s children are indifferent to the needs of others.

If you want to understand the epitome of love, look what God’s son did for you- he showed love in the most sacrificial way, he died for you. He died for the Afrikaans lady, he died for the smallest child in Hani Park, he died for the Mother Theresa’s of the world, he even died for the Hitler’s of this world. THIS IS LOVE!!!! Unconditional love. We don’t have the slightest clue about unconditional love. We only love if we are loved first, we love those who “deserve” it. What if God operated that way?

I’ve been challenged this week in so many ways. I’ve been humbled in so many ways as well. I’m a ministry major right?! But boy do I have a lot of learning. I hope my experiences can challenge you as they have challenged me. I hope it has given you a glimpse of what life is like thousands of miles away. I hope you are encouraged to know that we serve a God that is bigger then any problem we face!

I love you all!!!

Heather

TIA (This is Africa)

One month down, 5 more to go!!!

What an experience! I sit here typing this with the sound of evening thunderstorms in the background and the smell of fresh rain wafting through my room. I had expected to spend the evening emailing people and calling home…hmmm…but the internet connection is so higgledy piggledy I couldn’t get a connection….I guess that wasn’t what I was supposed to do tonight.

I’ve been here 5 weeks and it seems like it has flown by, however I think back to the day I left and it seems so far away. So much has happened around me, within me and to me. I am forever grateful for this experience.

What a once in a lifetime experience. This is really the only time in my life where it’s just me, no husband (not yet anyways) no kids, no full time job….just me and God. My mom tells me I should take it all in because it will all change so drastically. I have to agree with her, she’s a wise woman.

I am taking it all in. I’ve leaned on God more through the last month then I think I have my whole life. You don’t realize how much you rely on other people until you don’t have those people in your life where you are. This has brought me closer to God.

I wish I had the money to fly you all over here to see this country, to experience these people. It’s amazing to me how you can learn so much about yourself, God, what it means to be a Christian by experiencing a different culture…a different way of life.

So what have I been doing lately?

At Restore we are currently in the process of organizing a study centre for students to come and study and get the help on their school work that they need. This includes refurbishing 6ft bookshelves (sanding, painting etc.) Collecting resources, we are in desperate need of teaching aids, chapter books, Bible story books etc. None of these kids own books but they all love to read.
One thing that many Americans wouldn’t necessarily think about is electricity. The kids that we work with in the squatter villages do not have electricity. How on earth can they do their homework without electricity?!

Let’s take Tsumi for example, Tsumi is in grade nine and he walks 11 Kilo’s ( 7 miles) to school each way, 22 kilo’s (14 miles) a day. He is a rather small teenager (due to a poor diet). He is the boy with a photographic memory and loves to show off his "Michael Jackson moves." He has been accepted into one of the best high school programs Thabong can offer. Tsumi gets up at 4:30 AM just to make it to class. Would I have done that at age 17...I DON'T THINK SO. School gets over at 3:00 and takes a couple hours to get home. It starts getting dark around 18:00 (6:00 pm) which doesn’t leave much time at all to do homework. Tsumi lives in Hani Park without electricity and still has homework to do. The study centre would be a huge help for these students to be able to come and use our resources to get their work done so they can stay on task for school.

Ministry goes further then meeting the spiritual needs of people. It starts by taking the needs of a given people finding a way to provide for those needs while sharing with them the dire need to have Christ in their life.

I have been teaching Sunday school which is always so much fun. We will be moving Sunday school out to the RESTORE site hopefully by the end of the month.

Teen ministry is my favourite day of the week. It’s every Friday at 4 we go pick up the boys from Hani Park…eventually we will have girls but the boys scare them off. These boys don’t get much positive attention and don’t want to share it with others…something we have to work on.
Basically it is like a youth group. We come together play games, worship, have a lesson eat dinner together and hang out for a bit afterwards. So much fun let me tell ya!!! This meal is so important, these kids only get one good meal a week and that is when they come to teen ministry. A lot of our boys are malnourished and skin and bones…we are trying to figure out the best way to get them the nutrition they need so they can be healthy. Pray for them! Pray for what ways God may be leading you to help!

What have I learned so far?

There are nearly fourteen million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. It is predicted that there will be more than twenty-five million of them by 2010.These children will grow up without the love and care of their parents, and most of them will be deprived of their basic rights- shelter, food, health, and education. Many will be subjected to abuse, violence, exploitation, discrimination, trafficking, and loss of inheritance.

Before a girl can get married she must prove that she is “fertile”. She is to prove that she is able to bear children for her future husband. This creates many problems as you can guess. Not only do these girls give birth to countless babies but these babies are not wanted…they are nothing more to these people then a way to get married. And so it goes. This is Africa.

One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t save them all. This is hard for me to admit because I wish I could say everyone has a fighting chance. The statistics are bleak for these children and unfortunately there aren’t enough missionary’s and ministries to accommodate all these children. (Matthew 9:37, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”- referring to the spiritual harvest of souls for salvation) It is better to really invest in the lives of 20 children and dig deep into their spiritual life than to barely scratch the surface with 100 kids. Quality is better than quantity. We can change a generation if we get into the lives of the children affected by this darkness

Within a two year time span, six million people in South Africa have died as a result of HIV/AIDS. And, worst of all, that within the next twenty years seventy million people will die unless drastic action is taken. No one ever dies from AIDS, but because of what AIDS does to your immune system, your body becomes unable to fight the most common sicknesses that eventually will kill them.

There needs to be proper education to the people of South Africa about what AIDS is, and how it can be prevented. No one ever dies of AIDS but of sickness that cannot be fought due to the attack that AIDS has on the immune system. If only people knew how it is spread, and that it can’t be completely be cured. We need to put an end to these myths and these lies that are being spread throughout the villages and actually give these people truth. Truth and hope is what they need. And it can be met when we meet the spiritual and physical needs of these people

South Africa is a very poverty stricken country. Recently coming out of apartheid it has been hard for the blacks and colored to make a decent life for themselves. Under apartheid, the South African economy was characterized by severe state interventionism: Where blacks could live and work, and what type of jobs they could take, were all determined by the state. The main idea was to push the blacks, who accounted for more than 70 percent of the South African population, into ‘homelands’ or ‘Bantustans,’ which made up 13 percent of the land. ( I encourage you to do some research on apartheid- it’s horrific what happened to these people)

We must know that one of the greatest assaults to human dignity is poverty, where you wake up not knowing where you’re going to get your next meal, where you cannot have decent accommodations for yourself and for your children, where you cannot feed them, where you cannot send them to the high school. That is the greatest assault on human dignity, and that is why we should pay particular attention to the poor, who are ill, whose immune system is not capable of resisting these terminal diseases. This is a huge reality for the people that I am working with in Welkom.

Matthew 25: 35
“For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.”

Jesus no longer walks this earth which leaves us to be the evidence of saving faith. What fruit are you bearing? I encourage you to really look at this passage and study it for its true meaning. Deeds are not the basis for our entrance into the kingdom, but merely is the manifestation of God grace in our lives. Why wouldn’t we want to share that with other people?!