Another Life-Changing Trip
We're back from our recent team trip to South Africa. What a wonderful time, wet, muddy, and heart-rending stories. All came back safe and well but physically and emotionally tired but spiritually nourished. Jesus once told His disciples that His food was to do the will of the Lord. We felt that same spiritual nourishment that carried us through some pretty bleak places.
We visited Freedom Park near Rustenburg. This is where the poorest of the poor live in South Africa. Its sheet-metal shanties house 20,000 souls, mostly immigrant mine workers from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, the Congo, etc. There is no running water, no electricity, no toilets.
The men were brought in as workers years ago but were forced to leave their families behind. A sizable number of prostitutes moved in as well. It was a fertile breeding ground for HIV and now it is estimated that 50% of all the women are HIV positive. 80% of the pregnant moms test positive for HIV as well. Because of the constant grit in the air nearby platinum mines, tuberculosis is everywhere. Those with weakened immune systems from HIV are easily infected. In past years the area was so lawless that the police and emergency workers would not enter.
Things have improved somewhat in the past years. A Catholic ministry called Tapologo sends home health workers into the shanties to assess the health needs. They've found babies crying beside their dead mothers. The father is long gone and even the mother's origins are unknown. What hope is there for such a little one?
Tapologo runs a hospice for those in their last stages, and most arrive in poor shape. Weakened by AIDS and lungs destroyed by TB, they sit and wait for their appointed time to die. Tapologo administers anti-viral drugs to many (courtesy of President Bush's PEPFAR grants), but this seems to just prolong the misery. The loneliness, poverty, ill health and hopelessness for a better life are not touched by anti-virals.
Into such places only one light can shine. We were able to hold and frail hand, to tell of a God who has not abandoned them, who can still heal, and if not can be waiting for them after this life is over. People who have had everything stripped away seem to value the message of this gospel. Words of hope are palpable, healing, comforting.
If you had only a few days left, and they were mostly in misery, an hour or so of blessing and comfort and love could be the only bright spot in a very dark valley.
We had the chance to be God's bright lights, in the hospice, in the shanties, in the kid's ward of the public hospital in Rustenburg, and at the modest homes of two ladies who provide after school care for neighborhood orphans. In each setting you could see sadness and pain in the eyes of kids. Fortunately we were able to provide some good memories, some bright spots.
Take a look at the Eyes video we've prepared that shows some of these haunting eyes. There's also a gallery of photos on the Reaching a Generation web site with pictures from the trip.
We met some kindred spirits on the trip. Sebastian and his wife Natasha work with the United Nations on assignment in Rustenburg. They have invested themselves in the lives of 450 poor farm kids who live at a boarding school on Moedwil (pronounced Mudville) near Rustenburg. They have been working closely with thirty of these kids and have seen them grow into natural leaders. The kids are Moedwil are a shining example of how Hope can transform lives.
Its not education. Not wealth nor a clean and healthful environment. Its not music, culture, or having enough to eat. What changes a child, a man or woman, is the knowledge that there can be Hope. Hope based on the fact that there is a God who loves us, Who is intimately involved with our lives and has a plan for each of us. He values us. We are loved. We are not alone.
That's enough hope to change a person for a lifetime.
Keep up the life-changing work Sebastian!
We visited Freedom Park near Rustenburg. This is where the poorest of the poor live in South Africa. Its sheet-metal shanties house 20,000 souls, mostly immigrant mine workers from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, the Congo, etc. There is no running water, no electricity, no toilets.
The men were brought in as workers years ago but were forced to leave their families behind. A sizable number of prostitutes moved in as well. It was a fertile breeding ground for HIV and now it is estimated that 50% of all the women are HIV positive. 80% of the pregnant moms test positive for HIV as well. Because of the constant grit in the air nearby platinum mines, tuberculosis is everywhere. Those with weakened immune systems from HIV are easily infected. In past years the area was so lawless that the police and emergency workers would not enter.
Things have improved somewhat in the past years. A Catholic ministry called Tapologo sends home health workers into the shanties to assess the health needs. They've found babies crying beside their dead mothers. The father is long gone and even the mother's origins are unknown. What hope is there for such a little one?
Tapologo runs a hospice for those in their last stages, and most arrive in poor shape. Weakened by AIDS and lungs destroyed by TB, they sit and wait for their appointed time to die. Tapologo administers anti-viral drugs to many (courtesy of President Bush's PEPFAR grants), but this seems to just prolong the misery. The loneliness, poverty, ill health and hopelessness for a better life are not touched by anti-virals.
Into such places only one light can shine. We were able to hold and frail hand, to tell of a God who has not abandoned them, who can still heal, and if not can be waiting for them after this life is over. People who have had everything stripped away seem to value the message of this gospel. Words of hope are palpable, healing, comforting.
If you had only a few days left, and they were mostly in misery, an hour or so of blessing and comfort and love could be the only bright spot in a very dark valley.
We had the chance to be God's bright lights, in the hospice, in the shanties, in the kid's ward of the public hospital in Rustenburg, and at the modest homes of two ladies who provide after school care for neighborhood orphans. In each setting you could see sadness and pain in the eyes of kids. Fortunately we were able to provide some good memories, some bright spots.
Take a look at the Eyes video we've prepared that shows some of these haunting eyes. There's also a gallery of photos on the Reaching a Generation web site with pictures from the trip.
We met some kindred spirits on the trip. Sebastian and his wife Natasha work with the United Nations on assignment in Rustenburg. They have invested themselves in the lives of 450 poor farm kids who live at a boarding school on Moedwil (pronounced Mudville) near Rustenburg. They have been working closely with thirty of these kids and have seen them grow into natural leaders. The kids are Moedwil are a shining example of how Hope can transform lives.
Its not education. Not wealth nor a clean and healthful environment. Its not music, culture, or having enough to eat. What changes a child, a man or woman, is the knowledge that there can be Hope. Hope based on the fact that there is a God who loves us, Who is intimately involved with our lives and has a plan for each of us. He values us. We are loved. We are not alone.
That's enough hope to change a person for a lifetime.
Keep up the life-changing work Sebastian!
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