Swimming Upstream

It seems like sometimes you take 2 steps forward and 1 step back when you are working in ministry. You want so much for the people to be able to get out of there tough situations, but the truth is they are generally there because that is the way they choose to live. Other reasons for their lives of poverty are cultural issues or what we “westerners” would call laziness, but we are still learning that sometimes it is not that at all. Sometimes it’s just lack of education or resources. Over the last few weeks, I have been asking locals about different cultural issues and I am amazed at the ideas that people have different from ours (this doesn’t mean ours are all right but this is an example). We learned from the black culture a long time ago the children are responsible for their parents and they work and support them until they die. Now when these children have children they also have to support their children so how can they possibly get ahead? We just learned last week that the same goes for the colored culture. The colored culture has a desire to go to school but can’t be all that they want to be because the parents will not have income while they are in University (College) so they don’t allow them to aspire to be Doctors, Lawyers, etc. These world views differ all over the world but no matter what we do or say they are still the people’s values and beliefs and we are swimming upstream if we think we, without Jesus Christ, are going to be able to change any of it. All we can do is plant the seeds that God gives us and hope that the Holy Spirit will touch their lives and help them to be true disciples of God with Biblical world views. This really hit home when Mike and I went to see the movie, Precious, Saturday night. We knew this movie would be hard to watch, but we didn’t realize how hard. This is real life all over the world and it will break your heart to know that people who are supposed to love you abuse you for selfish reasons. Here in South Africa that abuse happens every day and no one cares. Just last week, one of our healthcare workers was called to come home because her 3 yr. old daughter had just been raped. This is horrific news and it is only getting worse in these communities.
The other issue that makes things so difficult here is the stigma for HIV/AIDS, it is unbelievable. Living Hope is hoping to promote a new program to try and figure out how to Stomp Out Stigma (S.O.S.) People are dying all the time with complications of AIDS but the families don’t know the patient, family member, is infected so it appears they died from Tuberculosis or some other ailment. It is like breast cancer was 20 years ago, no one would talk about it and thought it was a bad thing, but we have now learned to have the awareness so we can save lives. I have been reading a book titled, “A Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, and there are a lot of challenges to the things I am writing about here. He states, “We are not to judge others by their culture or the state of how they live” and I truly have to ask God for forgiveness in this area. It is difficult when you live it out day to day. Please pray with us to help stomp out the stigma of HIV/AIDS.

Cape Argus, Lance Armstrong, and the Capricorn Celebration, wow what a week!

Last Sunday was the 110 kilometer annual event for 35,000 cyclists from around the world. The roads around our area are always closed, so we decided in 2008 that we would make the Argus an annual event and we have thoroughly enjoyed it every year. This was our third time and Lance Armstrong came for the event this year. Now I can’t actually say I saw him because they came by in a flash. There was one guy that was way out front in the colors that we knew Lance was wearing, but it turned out not to be him. We got some great photos of that guy!! We had the majority of the volunteers camped out with us in the middle of the road so we could see all the bikers coming down the main road in Fish Hoek, for most them it was their first time and great fun was had by all. Lance wound up coming in 9th and took home the grand sum of R1000 equivalent to about $130. He left immediately from the race in his private jet, almost an oxymoron.
We had a team here from Birmingham at the same time as the Argus and their team leader actually rode in it. The team manned a water station and this kicked off their week of ministry to Living Hope. The remainder of the week the team visited Capricorn Community and went door to door knocking, praying with people and inviting them to do testing on Thursday, including HIV, diabetes, blood pressure etc. They had a huge success and tested about 100 people and 68 of the people for HIV. They also invited them to come Thursday evening for a community celebration including a meal and there was close to 350 people present. Children and adults were singing praises to the Lord and thanking Him for all He has done for their impoverished community. This was our largest turnout event yet for Capricorn and we had 5 people that accepted Christ into their lives. Overall, this was a huge success for this team and they are planning on bringing back two more teams this year. Praise God for what He is doing for this community and may we see others come to know the Lord through Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Birmingham Ala.

Life goes on

The weeks just seem to run together and before you know it 6 weeks have gone by. We have been consumed with working on our car and trying to get our new budget with Shepherd’s Staff worked out in detail. We have had our second team come and go and that has been an awesome experience for all of us. The last team from Franklin Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, left on Saturday and we are expecting another team from Birmingham Alabama on Friday. The outreach that they do with the communities is so rewarding and it really gives both locals and internationals an opportunity for God to work in them and through them. The Rolling Hills Team built a cover over our medical clinic and re-leveled the buildings where the ground had shifted. They also fed about 200 people at the celebration. We had a Nashville songwriter “celebrity” and his family on the trip and they jumped in and participated in all the activities. He only sang one song at the celebration but is sure makes us miss country music!!
We had an opportunity this past weekend to attend a “Lobola” with our Zimbabwean family Brian and Blessing. This was the couple that got married last year, January. The Lobola is the ceremony where normally the future son in law would pay a “bride price” for his future wife to the family. We did it a little backwards because the mother and father allowed them to get married last year before Brian had the money to pay them. We were thankful that he allowed them to go ahead and get married but we really thought they had forgiven the Lobola. Unfortunately for Brian, they had not and it cost him a lot of money (used to be cows and goats) to make it true with the family. I know this doesn’t seem right to our Western way of thinking but it gives them a lot of security in the community as a whole. It lasted about 2hrs but an experience that will last a lifetime.
Lastly, we have started to listen to God’s lead for the next season of our lives as our visa’s run out at the end of the year. We are praying and seeking God’s will for direction. This is always a stressful time as we want to be sure we do what He wants us to do, not what we think we should do. Please pray with us as we need wise counsel and guidance for this next course in our lives.