G-Comm LA

Well they saw and they conquered. The Grace Community Church team has left to return to the states. It is bitter sweet seeing them leave. I have learned a lot from them. God has used them to show me how I need to be serving better, and how I can change in that area. Not only looking out for my own self but actually looking for opportunities to serve others. I laughed a lot with this team and it is sad to see them go. But I know that Dr. Tatlock should be happy, because now I can actually get some work done for school .
Like I have said before in the previous blog: I have learned that I need not to be dependent on other people, but on the other hand I have learned that relationships with people are so important. If it were not for people this work that I am doing means nothing. I need to be investing my life into people with a servant’s heart. I need to have a heart that is serving others because I know that I am serving God in doing so.
The team was so much fun, and we got a lot done on the roof of the AIDS hospice. We played a lot of catch phrase after dinner. We made new friends. We looked forward to the word from the Lord for the day (“We’ll sleep when we’re dead” “SOS: Service Over Self” “Good things come to those who wait” “Get rid of it” etc.) We played with the kids. We ate wild meats. We went on a safari. We had a good time.
I hope I was as much of an encouragement to them as they were to me.

A Walk In The Park

Give the people what they want. Isn't that what they say? And I'm a man for the people so I'll give you what you want. By popular demand, I've been told to talk about the kids that I have been working with. These kids that I work with at Lambano (meaning receive, in the Greek) are ages infant-6 years. There are about 25 kids at 4 houses. All of them HIV positive, except for two in the baby house, and they are looking for parents to adopt them. I have had a blast working with the kids and they are such a challenge. I am trying to spend consistant time with one of the kids, Mandla, who has been giving the staff workers a difficult time. I'm really trying to kind of be a big brother to him.
One of the big challenges, and needs, that Lambano has is the lack of male interaction with the children. These kids are being raised by women. There is no one to wrestle with them and if you do they clam up because they are not used to it. Most of the boys are sissys. Now, I dont mean that in a harsh, malicious way, but its the truth that these boys are not learning how to be men, they are learning how to be crybaby's and weak. The boys will cry at the drop of a hat. So it has been a challenge to not be super hard on them, but love them in the way that they need. They need a man to tell them that they are not hurt just because someone slapped them on the shoulder and it made them cry. So my latest thing has been to tell them that they are fine if they start crying. I tell them in the nicest way possible, to suck it up. It may seem harsh, but its what they need. It has been so much fun working with the kids. But it has also been tiring.

This past Wednesday we went to the park with most of the kids for Chaiesse's ((Sp?)Kai-ee-say) birthday party. The team had fun with all of them and I got some good pictures.

We Will Be An Encouragement

Well, sorry for not posting for a while. I have been extremely busy, but yes, I know, that is no excuse. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am alive and well.
Why am I so busy? you ask. Let me tell you. Last Friday, June 8, a team from Grace Community Church flew in, and being an intern, I pretty much spend all my waking moments with the team. Though I am not living with them, I am with them when they are waking up and with them when they are going to sleep. I can not express how much of an encouragement the whole team has been to my soul. To be honest the week before they came was a little rough for me, in terms of missing home, but this has been a refreshing time. It is nice to see familiar faces, and to make new friends.

I had a conversation with Beth Mack about the loneliness, and she said something to me that I've really been thinking about lately. I need to be taking this time that God has given me to be alone, and see it as a gift. If any of you know me, I like to be doing things. I like to be out and about. I like to have something happening all of the time. If you have ever tried to get together with me, I'll probably have something going on every night of the week. And now in South Africa God has slowed my life down a lot. Not to say that I do not have things to do, but for example, the weekday nights are mine to do whatever with. This has been a good thing. I am free in the evenings to be reading, to be praying, to be concentrating on school work.

I guess I either have two options, to sit and pout about the fact that none of my friends are around or I can buck up and rejoice and praise God for all of the time He has graciously given to me... I'll take the latter.

All of that to say that this team from Grace has served me in a way that I couldn't have imagined. I am blessed that they are here and that I get to be a part of their missions trip. This trip that they are on is the same trip that changed my life last year. I pray that lives are changed on this trip for the team. I know that they have impacted mine.

I'd like to give shout out to my boy AUSTIN the "DA" and Joe

WORK DAY!

June 2, 2007 was a day that I have asked you to pray for. And your prayers were heard. God truly blessed the work day at Katlehong. We arrived at the school around 8:30 and we were ready to work. There were about 10 people from Grace Christian Church and about 10 people from Wytchwood Baptist Church (a church that one of the Lambano workers goes to). So the Lord was faithful to bring people out to work. It always helps with a job like this to have more hands than you know what to do with. Our main objectives were to replace the broken doors (two of them) and replace the door handles that were broken (a lot of them) and replace the broken windows. One of the most important jobs was to patch all the holes in the roof, and it was a good thing that we did because today (6/6/07) there was rain and hail. The patching job was relatively easy because there is a product called Flash Harry, and its basically a drywall patch, but for the tin roof. So I was put on the door duty, and with the help of a few others we got the doors done very quickly. So we moved to replacing windows. The windows are much easier to replace in the states, because of the rubber seal that just needs to be taken out. But, of course, South Africa does things the most difficult ways. The windows here are held in place by a putty of some kind. So, all of the putty needed to be chipped away and cleaned before you could put new putty in and then the window and another layer of putty to hold the piece of glass in place. It was a long process to get the windows in.
And the principle of the school told us a couple weeks ago that the kids were going to do a dance for us (the workers) to show their appreciation. Well, little did I know that a traditional Zulu dance calls for the girls to have their shirts off. Now, I knew that I was coming to Africa, but I didn’t realize that I was going to see half naked girls because we are in an actually big, industrialized city. But the principal told us that this was a sign of the girl’s virginity and purity. There was nothing sexual about it. So when they started dancing, a lot of the community came out to see because of their singing and dancing. And they would have gone all day, but the principal knew that we wanted to keep working and he might have seen all of the surprised looks on our faces when all the girls took off their shirts.
So after the dance we kept on working on the windows, and Conrad started to cut out some of the damaged ceilings in one of the containers. Which was a job suitable for one day alone, but we undertook it then. We ran into some obstacles, but we overcame. The whole day was a success and there was a reporter there, so when the story is in the paper I will transcribe it and post it here. After a long day we finally got out of there about 5:00 and a shower never felt so good back at home. Hopefully we will be going up there again to paint and do some more work in the weeks to come, but until then keep praying for the government here and the principal of the school as he fights to get some things done for his learners.

Lesson 1

On a lighter note, I learned how to ride a motorcycle. Well, I’m positive I don’t know everything about riding a bike, but Ruan gave me Lesson #1. It was awesome. I just learned the basics of shifting and doing some turning. We did some nice straight away roads so I could get used to the shifting, and we concluded by doing some highway riding. Of course the roads were not too busy. But there will be more lessons hopefully. Here are the pics of the bikes and Ruan:

GENESIS 50:20

This past week I heard Jack Hughes preach the same sermon three times in three days. I heard it once on Saturday at Grace Christians Churches “Sheepfold Conference” (a pre-shepherds conference, conference at the church), and once at church on Sunday, and once at the Shepherds conference. And you would never guess what the sermon was on: The providence of God. This is something that I’m beginning to understand, although I need to clarify that statement, because I will never understand God’s providence, but in my mind I think I am beginning to understand that God is in control and even then I do not remember that all the time. Jack spoke from Genesis 37-50, the Joseph narrative, and he focused on 50:20, saying how God meant Joseph’s evil brother’s actions for good. In God’s providence, he knew that I needed to hear that sermon three times. Being in South Africa, I am being exposed to a lot of unfortunate and heart breaking situations. It seems like every place I go there is a family with an amazing story. For instance today, in Katlehong, we met two Gogo’s (Zulu word for Granny) and they are taking care of six children because all of the kids parents have died from HIV/AIDS complications. They are taking care of these kids and they are living in shacks. Just shacks with no electricity, no heat, no running water.



It was incredible to see the love and joyous spirit that is within these people. And it is amazing that the government is doing nothing to help these people. The government has this motto, it seems like, and maybe you’ve heard of it, “Out of sight, out of mind.” This is what is going on in the townships. The people that are being affected the most by all of this are the children. The parents can not work, because they are dying of HIV/AIDS, most likely because of the lack of education, because the government is unwilling to admit that AIDS is a problem. Because what you have to understand is that on the death certificate it doesn’t say that the person died from AIDS, it says that the person died from TB, pneumonia, or some other sickness that is intensified because of the weakened or non-existent immune system. And the minister of health is telling stories that if you take a shower after having sex, or eating beet root, that will prevent you from getting HIV. The problem is the absence of education. So the children are being affected because they are running out of caregivers. Their parents generation is all dying and leaving the kids for the grandparents to take care of. So you think that there is a problem with abandoned kids now, with over 300 abandoned babies a month just in the Guateng province, think about the problem there will be in 10 years when the grandparents have died from old age. Who will take care of the children? Who will they go to? No one is there. True religion is to visit orphans and widows, this is becoming real for me. I am learning more and more what compassion is and what it isn’t. Compassion is an action. It doesn’t mean going into a squatter camp with a million dollars and building five star resorts for the people there. It means suffering alongside with people, loving people, rejoicing with people, mourning with people, encouraging people, its being with the people. Compassion is realizing that there is no mere mortal that you meet. There is a soul within the shell of the body that will spend eternity in either of two places, and would you be the one to let them know where they could be?
I went to a township about two hours away where there is a lady, the lady who helped start Lambano (the orphanage which houses about 30 HIV+ children all under 7 years old), who has a ministry reaching out to the townships and empowering the people through education by weekly meetings and entrepreneurship by teaching how to farm and sew.





She also is reaching out to the HIV+ population. There is an AIDS hospice within the town. People come here seeking help. Because the hospitals are so bad most people are malnourished and dirty. This is what the hospice seeks to do. That is, wash people up, and help them with a proper diet. Every person who comes has AIDS. I thought I was prepared to see such a place. This was not the case. I felt sick to my stomach because I thought that it would be a photo opportunity. But I was filled with heartache because a 21 year old lady with a 3 month old baby looked like a skeleton with tears coming down her face. What could I do? I tried to bring up a smile to encourage her. I felt so helpless. Then is when I can rely on God’s providence. This is why I need to be reminded so often that I serve an almighty God, who is in control of everything. Even the HIV virus. Psalm 115:3 says that God is in the heavens and He does whatever pleases Him. Rejoice in the fact that you can not see the big picture. Rejoice that God works all things after the counsel of His own will. Rejoice that He works all things together for good to those who love Him. I need to be reminded of this often. And thank God, in His providence, that I heard that sermon, on God’s providence, three times. Nothing happens on accident, and there is no such thing as luck or chance, but God knows all things. In that sermon Jack gave an illustration that I believe is a puritan illustration of how God’s will works, and also explaining the doctrine of concurrence, which is how sinful mans actions and God’s sovereign will work themselves out. Because God has given man a degree of free will to make decisions, and he has given the demons a will to make decisions and to act in whatever way they want, but WHATEVER they choose, it is all working in God’s will. Just as the gears in a grandfather clock, some are large and others small. Some are moving the “right” way, and some are in opposition, but with every turn of the gear they are forwarding the motion of the hands on the face. God’s will will be done. And it will carry on as He wants it to.
The problems in South Africa run deep. They run so deep the only thing that can get to them is the gospel. I feel like I can go on and on about the things I’ve learned but this is sufficient for now. Please have this country in prayer, as God is the only one who can change things.

Before and After

Well, last summer, while in Johannesburg I said to my team, not knowing that I’d be coming back, how awesome it would be to actually see the church that we worked on inhabited and being used on Sunday mornings. Little did I know that it would be less than a year that that would happen. One of the first days I arrived here we went to the work site/plant church, named Mercy Bible Church. Vuyo, the pastor, ministers to “Extension 9” the government housing projects next to the church, and to the local squatter camps. Being a plant church, Vuyo spends a lot of time in prayer and evangelism. There are many trials and difficulties of starting a church from scratch and I’m only beginning to see the list of them.
We dug the foundation to the church building last summer, and throughout the last year the walls and roof have been erected, and they are doing the final steps of electrical on the building. Seeing the finished product of the Grace Church short term mission team was so awesome. The church is now being used every Sunday and hopefully the church will grow and in the years to come we will need to go back and move the church and build a bigger building.
The plan was to finish the church building and then start building on the AIDS hospice. Basically a place where people can go and not have to die in the camps. They can die in beds, and have a “proper” death. When I left last summer it was just a slab of cement with wires coming out of it for the electrical outlets, and now the walls are up and the Grace Church team this summer will be putting the roof on the building. It is exciting to see how God is using the teams to grow His church.

Here is the before and after pics of the church building.

Journal Entry-May 24, 2007

Well here is an opportunity to give you a glimpse in to my journal. I decided that it would probably just be best to give you an entry to my journal because this day was very eye opening.
So here it is.

May 24, 2007

Today we were running around JoBurg all day. Beth, on Thursdays, runs a clinic where the people of Katlehong can be tested for HIV. There is a doctor who comes in who is a member of Grace Christian Church. So while Beth and Nicolene, the doctor, were at the clinic, Conrad and I went to the school where all the work needs to be done. And as we drove up, all of the kids were assembled out in the open space in their chairs. When we inquired further, we were told that one of their students had just passed away and they were having a memorial for the boy. And we later found out that his sister attends the school as well.



Conrad and I were there so we could get a final measurement for the supplies we are going to buy. Because all of the kids were not in the classrooms this made a three and a half hour job into about an hour job, which was kind of nice. And while we were measuring I heard a noise. It was a quite pleasant noise. It was sweet to the ears. It sounded like a lullaby. I could not understand the words, but the voices were amazing. All of the kids, faculty, and staff raised their voices to lament the passing of this little boy. It was stunning, simply amazing. I told Conrad that I wanted to be in their section when I got to heaven. It was so beautiful I was taken away almost to just daydream about what heaven was going to be like. So after that I was pulled back into reality when I saw the ceiling that needs to be replaced and the windows that were shattered.



So Conrad and I kept measuring away and got the totals for the work day. In the afternoon I ran errands with Conrad and he took me on a dry run to the airport, because I’ll be picking some people up next week. After finishing that, Ruan picked me up and we met some people for dinner. It is nice to be coming back to a place like Johannesburg because there are familiar faces and friends. So it doesn’t feel totally foreign, just a little. But I guess the more time I spend here the less foreign it will seem.