A Midnight Visitor

(Before I start this story I would like to make a disclaimer: Most of us don't think that well or rationally at midnight.)

So, last night for some reason I started watching a movie at about 10:30. It wasn't anything great but for some reason I decided to stay up and finish it. About midnight as I was walking back to my bedroom, I thought I heard something or someone in my kitchen. Now remember I live in South Africa, the land of crime :), my immediate thought was how in the world did they get past my security system and my heart started racing. I then heard whatever it was coming towards me and my heart really started racing. We take intruders very seriously here. I was a little relieved (but not much) when it raced past me and I thought, "oh my word, that is a huge rat......"

I quickly got in my bedroom and shut my door and it hit me that it wasn't a rat but was a cat. Almost as bad in my book. I could hear it race towards the kitchen and jump on something and knock something off the counter. I stood there thinking about what in the world I was going to do. We have a lot of wild cats here so I was also thinking about diseases and germs and things like that. I thought about pressing my panic button and making the security guy get it out of the house but decided I didn't want to be the story they tell to everyone about the dumb American. So, I peeked my head out and made sure it was still in the kitchen. I quietly snuck into the living room and opened my front door. I then went and got the broom out of the closet. (Didn't want to have to touch it- that whole disease thing and I could tell it was scared and mad and didn't want to be bitten or scratched.)

I found it in the kitchen trying to climb up my burglar bars to find a way out. (It had come in through an open window so I think it was trying to find one to leave by.) It saw me and raced back to the study to try and get out that window which was now closed. It raced back and forth several times before I realized that instead of trying to get it to find the door if I opened one of the windows it would jump out of it the next time. It eventually jumped out the window and left. Needless to say, it was a very comical sight that I wished someone else had been there to enjoy :).

Some good entertainment

If you would like to see something very entertaining, please follow the link below. Its the video of our Lambano Christmas concert. It was very fun to watch. Lambano Christmas Concert.

First Day of School

 
 

Last week was the first day of school for four of our children. Yes, the little girl at the bottom was as scared as she looked. I was surprised at how hard it was to drop them off and how hard it was not to cry when we left them. 

I didn't come to South Africa expecting to develop a burden for the poor. I think in part I didn't even begin to know what poverty was until I came to South Africa. I mean I used to think I was poor. I was perfectly content to focus my ministry the women in the church and the staff at Lambano. Yet, the longer I am here the harder it becomes to keep that my only focus. But I keep thinking, what are we doing to reach the large majority of our country that won’t come through our church doors?

It would be easy to stay comfortable but every time I drive down the street passed the local squatters camp I think, "What is the church doing to minister to these people?". That question has become more personal recently. I now think, "What am I doing to minister to these people? What am I doing to bring the gospel to the needy?" In some ways, it was easy to sooth my conscience. I mean I work in an orphanage for HIV positive children. But is there more I should be doing? I have been convicted as I have read Scripture of the priority it places on the church being involved in mercy ministries. (For more on this check out my brother's blog: Africa Bound.)

You see I am convinced that the answer to the AIDs crisis in South Africa is the gospel. Its not the result of a lack of medicine or a lack of education. Yes, those things would help but the AIDs crisis in part is a result of a worldview that is shaped by ancestral worship. But its hard to share the gospel with someone who hasn't eaten in days and not be concerned with feeding them as well. Another GMI missionary recently put it this way to me, "For hundreds of year the church has been telling people the gospel, its time to start showing them what the gospel looks like."

Well, what does this all mean for me? Lambano has started a work in one of the local townships (Katlehong). We provide food to families impacted by HIV. We also have been involved in raising the monies to build houses for people who had no place to live. Each Thursday we take a doctor and an occupational therapist and run a clinic for HIV positive children. (Do you know that in just one of the local cemeteries over a 100 children are buried a month? The majority of these would be AIDs related deaths.) In addition, we train foster mothers so that they can get the government funding they are eligible for and we will be starting a feeding program that will provide lunch for over 1800 school children each day. For many, this will probably be their only meal of the day. We also would like to develop a sustainability project and teach them a trade so that will in turn help them earn an income. The goal: to show them what the gospel looks like. This ministry has provided us with tremendous evangelistic opportunities.

The problem has been that there has been no one to work with this project and lead it which is were I fit in. As of January, I will be helping to head this part of of our ministry up. In about a year, this will all come under the work of the hospice we are building. What’s exciting about that is that the hospice is on the same piece of property as our church plant. There is a tremendous lack of good churches in the black community. To have our ministry geographically close to a solid one will be a tremendous help in helping establish people in the church.

Please pray for this. Pray specifically for opportunities to share Christ with those we will be ministering to. Our desire is to not merely be another humanitarian group but to really bring the truth of God's Word to bear in these people's lives. Pray for wisdom and strength as I add this into my current responsibilities. Pray for my continued safety. Katlehong (the township we are ministering in) isn't the safest part of the city. In addition, pray that God will raise up a good biblical church in Katlehong. Our church plant is currently to far from the township for many of them to go to but there really isn't anywhere else to send them to.

Update on Rose

Sylvia and Rose

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for Rose. The transformation that God seems to be doing in her life is amazing. She truly is not the same person. She and I have started to meet together. She even invited me to her house this week which is amazing. In the past, she kept so to herself that if you even asked her a personal question she got upset. She never would have invited anyone to see where she lives.

We are going through God's Solutions to Life Problems. It is a little above her head but she is working diligently to complete it and learning from it. Please continue to pray for her. She does get some comments about the fact that she is meeting with me and some of the other staff have given her a hard time about it. She also is about to get a promotion which will make them even nastier to her. In the black culture when something good happens to someone, they don't get excited for each other. Instead they get jealous and often begin to attack the other person. Pray that God will continue to work in her heart and life and strengthen her for what lies ahead!

 

Lambano Staff Christmas Party Pictures

 

Lambano's Christmas Concert

This year Lambano put on a Christmas concert. Our kids memorized about 45 minutes worth of Christmas songs. Somehow it seemed a little strange though to hear kids sing about dashing through the snow in tank tops and shorts :). 

The Last Few Months in Review.....

Obviously, because Thanksgiving is connected with American history, it isn't a holiday that South Africans celebrate. So, this past Thanksgiving we introduced a few South Africans to a real Thanksgiving dinner. I must admit it felt wierd to put out Christmas snowmen as part of the centerpieces in 80 degree weather. I've also included a few pictures of some people I wish I had been able to celebrate Christmas with just because they're cute.