Welcome to Friday! I just want to thank everyone for their e-mails of support and comments about the blog and the events that I've been blogging about for the last two weeks. I've sincerely enjoyed being transparent and hope and pray that you read something that challenges you and encourages you in how you are living your life and engaging in your faith!
I thought my entry on Rose would be some of my final thoughts about the trip. As I went through pictures today, I realized there was more to share and so much more to say that hadn't been said yet.
It was Wednesday afternoon. We had but one and a half days left to share the message of the gospel with these great people of South Africa. We were in a new squatter camp called KaySans. You can see some of the pictures above. This camp is much different than Diepsloot. In Diepsloot, we parked in front of a clothesline pole in the shape of a cross with plenty of open space around us; here we parked in front of a garbage heap of trash and old/rotten food. As I mentioned earlier large grocery stores dump their rotten food here so people can go through it and cook it for their daily bread. The stench of this was a bit overwhelming. We got out of our vehicles and divided out into our usual 3 groups. Acts, Wendy, Derrina and I climbed the slight hill to the area right above the garbage zone. At the top of the ridge we turned left and walked along a steep drop off until we ran across two young women. They just sat there, overlooking the decaying heap of trash below them. It made me appreciate the beautiful views I have from my front porch of the beautiful Appalachian mountains. It made me appreciate the smell of the leaves from the fall, the smell of rain in the spring, and the smell of sunshine in the summer. What a contrast to the scents that my nose was taking in.
I wish I could remember their names but I just can't. Maybe Derrina and Wendy can fill in the blanks for me later. Acts begins his usual opener. They were amazed that we would come from America to see them. Of all of the places that we could be they couldn't understand why on earth we would show up there. We told them that we had flown in a plane 18 hours and that really messed with their heads; they thought you could just drive to America. When we told them that it was only 6:30AM at our house and that our families were probably still in bed, that really warped their thinking...after all it was 1:30PM.
We smiled and chatted a little bit awkwardly for 10 or 15 minutes. As much as I had been talking and being a part of the conversations with the people, my lips were oddly sealed. I let Wendy and Derrina keep the discussion going. Suddenly a new young woman enters the picture and wonders what we are doing and why we were there. I had this bad feeling that she was going to be a distraction and try to throw us off of our mission...thankfully I was very very wrong in this feeling as she actually became a great help.
Since my lips were seemingly sealed, I decided that I could be of better service to play with the kids that were impatiently waiting and bothering our two mothers. I thought it best that I become a distraction with them so that the team could effective have the attention of the moms. I squatted down to my knees and taught the kids how to give a high-five and then just a "give me five". Their eyes were glowing with the attention they were received from me, a crazy-happy white stranger man. It sounded like the conversation was going much better behind me as the moms began to relax and open up. I had no idea what they were saying specifically because I was too busy trying to keep these adorable kids busy. We all held hands and I made up a simple little song of praise using one of the two Zulu words that I know...U-JES-OO (Jesus). I sang it over and over and clapped and danced and pointed up to heaven. Interestingly enough the little girl said Jesus instead of U-Jes-OO so we just started sing Jesus, Jesus, Jesus over and over. It was fun if I can be honest. That's about the extent of my children's ministry. I'm good with kids for about 10 minutes and after that you'll need to pass me the morphine drip LOL!
I was motivated this time however to keep going. I heard something that the women said to Wendy and Derrina. They said this, "There's something different about you all. We don't know what it is but some thing's different that we don't normally see. Our kids can tell that there's something different about that guy because of they way he is playing with them. They can sense it." Well I heard that and I just started praising even more right there above the garbage dump and over top of the stench of garbage, me and the kids lifted up praise from this sad little place in the world. God will be glorified in all places of all the earth and this place was no different just because it was "different."
The 3rd lady that had joined in insisted that the conversation go further. At that point, me and the kids stopped playing as we were invited into the shack. There was much attention to detail in this small one-room building. The bed was neatly made with small stuffed animals strategically placed on the top of the bedspread. There was a small stereo and a few other gadgets on a shelf that were covered with a white, lacy dolly. The ladies insisted on sitting in the floor while we were given chairs and stools.
I listened to that third women speak of how horrible the white boss at her job treats her. He calls her a dog among other things. She's clearly hurt by the degrading verbal abuse that she takes from him, but she's helpless to do or say anything. She is after all, one of the lucky ones that even have a job. This is the first time that someone has opened up about some of the hardships of being a different race in this country. She only told the story because she was so amazed that we were not calling her a dog. She was amazed that something was just so different about us. We were nice and full of life and respectful. We treated her like a human. She had never seen a white person in the way we were representing them up to this point in her life. We listened with a careful respect and tried to be as understanding and compassionate as we could.
We thought it was interesting. We came to South Africa and saw blacks in a whole new way than what we see in America and because we came they saw whites in a whole new way. It was the perfect bridge for us to point out and use as we talked about God's creation and how He created all of us, not just blacks or whites and that He wants a PERSONAL relationship/friendship with all of us. This struck a chord of understanding and agreement in them. The conversation progressed as we continued to share our lives with each other.
We learned that they were hungry. They had a physical need that we could not meet at this time, but we shared with them the gospel. We told them about Jesus being the bread of life. Finally I shared some scriptures and personal testimony from my own life. I told them that even though I had never felt hunger like they had that I had times in my life that I was hungry for other things to fill up the hunger that was inside of me. I went on to tell of my love of material things and possessions and how I used to seek after those things. Only after I began my personal relationship with Christ did that hunger get filled and I no longer needed those things to fill me up because I could "feed" on His promises and His Word.
After we led them in a prayer of salvation, we sat in amazement to hear an incredable statement..."You know I don't feel so hungry anymore. I feel full." Well the tears were welling up in our eyes to say the least. It's almost surreal to hear people testify to such a filling of God in their lives. It's amazing that she would share such a thing with us. She had no motive or stood to gain nothing for sharing. It was just her heart being exposed for us to see. Jesus is the BREAD of LIFE and she was full from feeding on it and receiving it!
She found the bread of life because she SAW something different in us. What a powerful thing to say that they way we were talking and treating them was a witness to Christ and His love and His Spirit that dwells in us. How incredible that something besides what we were wearing and the color of skin wasn't what they saw but that they saw that difference in our actions and our words. The Bible tells us to let our light show for the world to see and this was a real life example of how brightly and how effortlessly it really can shine if you let it out! How neat that they could see Christ in us! Now His Holy Spirit dwells in them! Praise God for 3 more that day!
This particular sqatter camp was interesting to say the least. John, one of our team members started sharing the gospel on one of the pathways with 3 men and as he shared more and more people gathered around. In the end John led the group of 15 men, that's right 15 men, all in a prayer to invite Jesus into their lives and follow Him forever.
It sounds too good to be true really. I read that and still think "no way." There were no easy gospel presentations. This wasn't Joel Olsteen preaching the peaches and cream gospel of feel good and prosperity. The TRUTH of God's Word was presented. It wasn't edited for political correctness and it wasn't cleaned up so we didn't offend the different cults of the world. We told them how it was as it is WRITTEN. Nothing more and nothing less. The Word went out and it DID NOT RETURN VOID...just as it is written in Isaiah! God is still moving! God is still working in the world today! God is still in the business of saving souls...whether it's 3 at a time, 1 at a time or 15 at a time! God still shows us His grace and His mercy through Jesus and Jesus alone! In Him there is no other! He is I AM!
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