CAT-LA-HONG

Within the last couple of months Beth Mack has been in contact with a school in a township, whose population is said to rival Soweto (the largest township in Johannesburg), named Katlehong. I suppose many do not know what I’m talking about when I speak of a township. The best way I know how to describe it is that it is a slum. It is what you would see on a Sunday morning when World Impact is trying to get you to sponsor a kid. It’s that type of living.
So anyway, I’m not sure how, but Beth has a foster parent class on Fridays and around thirty people attend. These people are either going to adopt, are taking care of kids or just showing up for the free tea and sandwiches. But for whatever reason they are coming they are being exposed to some very good things.
This past Friday, Beth was planning on showing a video named, “God’s answers to AIDS: winning the battle against HIV/AIDS” and then having me share the gospel afterwards, but the sound did not work so she gave a PowerPoint presentation on HIV/AIDS.



She postponed the video and gospel presentation until next week (5/25/07). And I would have to say that I have learned more about AIDS in the last three days than I have in my whole life.
There is such a stigma in the US that if you go to Africa you will get AIDS. This is not true. Possible? Yes. Guarantee? No. There are only three ways to get HIV (the virus you need to get AIDS). First way is blood to blood. For example, if two girls pierced their ears with the same needle and the first one had HIV the second will get it. Also in many tribes when boys turn to men they get circumcised. And in a line of 15 boys if the second one in line has HIV, the rest of the boys will get it because they do not switch knives. Secondly is mother to baby. Whether that be in the actual birthing process when the bloods mix, and that is 30-50% of the time when it happens, or while breast feeding. Many kids were contracting the virus when the mother was negative and they couldn't figure out why. And they found that the mothers were leaving the children to be breast fed while they went to work. And the other mothers had the virus. The third way to contract the virus is the exchange of bodily fluids; sex. This accounts for 95% of all infections in Africa. That blows my mind! 95%! There is a solution for AIDS and a cure for AIDS… STOP HAVING SEX OUTSIDE THE CONTEXT OF MARRIAGE. It’s that simple. Be faithful to your mate. Why is this a hard thing to do? Mankind’s desire to rebel against God is the answer. Basically we see Romans 1 right in front of our very eyes.
This is why Beth is out trying to inform people about HIV/AIDS in the townships. One of the biggest reasons for the epidemic is ignorance. She is also trying to break down the stigmas of HIV/AIDS here. Another factor that contributes to such huge numbers of infections is that people are afraid to go get tested. So that means people do not know that they have HIV, because you could not have symptoms for up to 6 years down the line. While they are sleeping around they are infecting more and more people and not even knowing it. People are afraid to get tested because of what others may think.
In addition to that I have learned what you cannot get AIDS from. You can NOT get HIV/AIDS from: coughing, sneezing, sharing a straw or fork, hugging, sharing sheets, shaking hands, kissing, animals, or mosquito bites. So, if you are not living an immoral lifestyle and are wise about what you put in your body, you will be fine. There are not other ways of contracting HIV.
To bring it back on track about Katlehong, Friday mornings was the parenting class and after that we went to the school in the township. This was the saddest thing I’ve seen. It is the worst looking school I have ever seen. There are 1300+ kids ages 5-12 in about 20 shipping containers…and that is generous, shacks would be more accurate. Some of them do not have electricity, and a lot of them have holes in the roofs and holes in the floors, broken windows, and broken doors, and the list could go on.
Grace Christian Church is having a work day up at the school on June 2, 2007 and so we were walking through making a list of what is worth doing in one day, and while we were walking through one of the classrooms, this was one where you would have to climb over desks to get to the front because of the crowding, the teacher started almost worshipping us. She was telling us that we were saviors, pulling them out of the water and saving their lives. She continued telling us that she’s been praying for 10 years that someone would come and help them and that we were redeeming them. My jaw almost hit the floor because no one would ever think about helping them. We were few white people who would actually go in to Katlehong. The sad part is that the government has money but they are unwilling to help give them a place at least that is suitable for learning. And I was talking with Beth and she said that $300,000 American would put up a school. It was very eye opening spending time there, and I’m sure that we will make a little dent in the list of things to be done on June 2, but it will mean the world to the staff, faculty, and students. Please pray that many people will come to the workday and that there will be many opportunities for the gospel to be heard. Thanks.

Home, Sweet Home

My apologies for not posting anything for a while, my AC adapter has decided to stop converting electricity so that I can use my computer. So a lot has happened in the last couple of days, and as a result, I’ll be posting a few blogs right now. And also the blogs will be written in retrospect and also just catching you up with what has been happening.
So, first things first. I am not staying at Grace Christian Church as expected, I am staying at one of the Lambano homes. Lambano is the orphanage that I’m working with while I’m here and they have four homes. I am staying at one of them and there are two that are just two blocks west of me and stand next to each other. These two houses are right next to Beth Mack’s house as well. Then, two blocks north of me is another Lambano house next to the church office, also Brian and Anita’s home. The nice thing about where I’m staying is that everything is just a short walk away, unless its dark then you drive.
But the house that I’m staying in has a flat out in the back yard and that’s where I’m sleeping. The flat is actually very nice. It has one small room that has two twin beds and a small dresser. The next room has a small refridgerator and a small two burner stove and a small sink. And next to that is the bathroom where there is a toilet, sink, and shower.








So this is where I’ll be living for the next two and a half months. I’ll be doing laundry inside the home. Hopefully nothing will get mixed up with the kid’s clothes.

Howzit?

Well, I can hardly believe it but I’m here. I really made it to South Africa. After over 24 hours of travel, I’m finally getting settled in to my home for the next two and a half months. A lot has happened in the last two days. It all started at around a quarter to four Tuesday morning when I woke up remembering that we planned to leave at four, so we rushed to put everything in the car and off we were to LAX. I checked in at the ticket counter and the lady asked me if I had a laptop computer in the suitcase, and I did because I didn’t want to carry it in my backpack. So, she recommended that I put it in my backpack because the airport people are not so gentle with the luggage. I heeded her advice and was glad I did, for when put my suitcase on the scale to see if I had exceeded the fifty pound weight limit a big digital red “49.5 lbs” showed up on the screen. My computer is at least five pounds. So, God was gracious to me in a way that I wasn’t even aware that I needed grace in.
I was a little early, about an hour, for the flight to New York. Which was nice because I had a chance to read and kind of catch my breath. They called my seating section and boarded the plane and I had gotten a window seat, which was nice. The guy next to me though it was nice too, because he was leaning on me with his blanket wrapped around his head snoozing away. He didn’t get up once. As a result, that made for a long five and a half hour flight to New York.
Once in New York I had to find the South African Airlines ticket booth. And they have a cool thing at JFK called the airbus, which is a tram that takes you to the different terminals. So I hopped on that to terminal 4 to search for SAA. We boarded and took off with no problems. I received seat 76G which is the furthest possible seat on the aircraft. I didn’t mind at all because no one was sitting next to me this time. The plane was relatively empty which was really nice. Once in the air they handed out menu’s for food. And on it I saw the menu for the food that was being served from JFK to Dakar. And I didn’t think much of it until I saw where we were going to be landing. Dakar, Senegal. Dakar, Senegal??? There must be a mistake, I’m supposed to be going to Johannesburg! I told myself to calm down and that I did everything right. But wait. Did I really see gate 27b. Maybe I got on 27a and am going to be stuck in Dakar forever. “Oh come on Matt, snap out of it!” I said to myself. Mind you this is all in the air over the Atlantic already. I just kept telling myself that there is nothing that I can do about it now so just enjoy the flight, so I got up and went to the bathroom, and after I was standing where all of the flight attendants stay and where they keep the food, and on all of the containers they were marked “Flight 203 to Dakar” but my flight was “Flight 204 to Johannesburg” I memorized everything about my flight after checking my boarding pass and itinerary just to make sure.
So after calming myself down after that I asked the lady sitting two seats over if I could see her boarding pass stub and she graciously let me borrow it, and what do you know they matched. She told me that this was just a stop and that we don’t get off of the plane. That was such a relief to hear.
Seven hours of worrying about what the people were like in Dakar, and asking myself if I was going to fit in because that’d be where I was living, to say the least I was relieved to take off again en route to Johannesburg. That flight was a blur and I don’t have much to say about the flight from Dakar to JoBurg. So I’m not going to say anything.
Beth picked me up and she showed me my room at one of the Lambano houses. I thought I would be staying at the church but Beth thought it was a little scary to stay there by myself, so we thought it best to be with the kids. Well, no not really, the fear was not a factor with me. but just because it was nicer, and closer to the kids. I want to take pictures of it and I’ll put them up ASAP. And now I’m just adjusting to going to sleep because SA is nine hours ahead of the States. I’ll keep posting things as they happen. I love you all back at home.