Its been a long week

Its been a long couple of days. I've been sick for one. I've had a fever, sore throat thing that I haven't been able to kick but more then that sometimes the reality of life and ministry hits you.

We found out this week that our community worker has been extorting money from some of the people we (being Lambano) are helping in the township. God graciously allowed us to find out by having a grandmother we have given money to go to a social worker we know to ask her to call Mamma Lyn to see if she could just have a little more time to come up with the R950 (about $150) that we were asking her to pay us back. In God's providence, the social worker knew that we would never ask for money back and called us. So, yesterday we set up a sting operation and gave her the money to give to our worker, told her what to say and sent a witness with her. And she was caught. (She doesn't know it yet but I am safe writing it here because she can't read or write.)

Please pray. It has the potential to get ugly- really ugly. Please pray that God's name wouldn't be dishonored. The people we work with know we are Christians. My prayer is that our testimony in the area wouldn't be hindered. Please pray for wisdom. Its a tricky situation. We have to somehow distance ourselves from her in the community so she can't continue to extort money from people which means that things will become public. We will, Lord willing, be having a meeting on Monday with the women we are feeding to let them know what is happening and try to discern if it has occurred with anyone else. Yet at the same time it makes my heart sad to have to make it so public. Pray as well that we would respond to sin in a loving and compassionate way and not in anger. Frankly, yesterday I struggled with wanting to strangle her. Its one thing to steal from Lambano. (Its not right to do so but I can see how with a harden conscience you could justify it by how much we have in comparison to what they have. Its still not right to do.) But to steal from a poor grandmother who has absolutely nothing infuriates me! And pray that this worker would be saved and turn to Christ in repentance.

Really though, my biggest prayer right now is the first one I mentioned: that God's name wouldn't be drug through the mud by this. That's the crucial issue!!!

I was so touched by the grandma involved. Now, you need to realize that she is caring for 3 children on what amounts to a little over a $100 a month. She must have been so overwhelmed to think of paying us back but when she came to talk to the social worker she wasn't made or upset. She merely wanted more time to come up with the money. She also told me yesterday that she no longer wanted our food packages because now that she got some government grants, she wanted more needy people to get the food. More needy people? What an amazing attitude she showed.

Today was a day of lows and highs. We buried the little girl pictured above. She was the 16 month old who died about a week and a half ago. What was particularly sad to me was that the people who came to the funeral (5 of us on staff at Lambano) were people who had only known her for 3 days. How sad to have a little life die needlessly and have no one to mourn her. Sadder is how common that is here and in all of Africa.

Pictured below is the cemetery we buried her in. The children's section is now so large that you can't even fit it in a picture without a wide angle lens. They are still burying over a hundred children a month in this one small cemetery. I would be curious to know how many children are buried a month in a cemetery in the states. Anyone want to do some research?






On a happier note, later that day I was able to return three small children to their mother. The mother was very sick and the children were brought to us to care for. We had them for about two months. After she was released from the hospital, we built her a tin house and got her a coal stove and she was able to once again care for her children. It was a very happy day to be able to do that! We will continue to help to feed them and provide for some of their basic needs. It was nice to have a happy ending to the day!

Please Pray for Mr. Masina's Salvation!

This is Pat Masina who is the Deputy Principal of the school we are trying to help. Please pray with me that God saves him! Because of his position of leadership and education, he has the potential to be a great influence for Christ in many people's lives in Katlehong!

When I saw him last week, he said one of the nicest things that anyone has said to me lately. He told me that even though I was white on the outside I must be black on the inside because I fought for them like a black person- with passion and follow through. He also said that while many have expressed an interest in helping the school no one else has followed through like Lambano and our church. It was very encouraging and I pray that God will help us to continue to be a light for Christ in a very dark place.

The Answer You've Been Waiting For

Before I tell you the answer, let me give you a little perspective. My friend just had a baby about 6 weeks early who weighed 2.08 kilos (about 4.5 pounds.) A newborn has to weigh about 2.27 kilos (5 pounds) to be released from the hospital. This little girl weighed 2.72 kilos when she came to us and had AIDs and TB. She also had been given no medication for either of these diseases. She had no teeth and her soft spot had not fully closed. Her mother had died two months ago and her father disappeared. Her age????? She was 16 months old....... Amazing isn't it? Amazingly sad that is.

She's a great example of why Lambano is working very hard to finish building our hospice. This little girl didn't need to die now. If she had been put on medication when she should have, she probably could have gotten better and lived a while longer. Why does this happen? Well, I think that the bottom line is that few people care. The hospital certainly doesn't care. The attitude is they are going to die anyway so why try to save their lives. To illustrate how poorly they look after the kids let me tell you about the paperwork we received with her. The doctor who released her was suppose to do an examination of her. The paperwork we received stated that he had examined and found that she had normal boy body parts and that they were functioning properly. Let me tell you, I checked... She had no boy body parts. I wonder if he even looked at her........

Sadly we got her to late. She died several days after she came to us. Sadder still is that the cemetery where she will be buried (which is one of many in the area) has buried 1576 children since March of 2006. On average, that comes to about a 100 children a month. I think its time someone starts to care!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guessing Game

Before I tell you this little girl's story, lets play the guessing game. How old do you think she is?

I realized after I posted this that it would be good to give you some perspective. She weighs 2.7 kilos which is about 6lbs.

Video of Katlehong

Here is a video clip of the school project in Katlehong.