Final post from South Africa

Greetings Friends, Family, Supporters, strangers who happened to stumble across the blog, this will be our final post from South Africa as we're going to be pulling out of here in about 7 hours.

By now I'm confident you've heard about the many different opportunities we've all had to serve here with Living Hope. You've heard about the kids/teens clubs (and about how cute and adorable the little guys are), the painting jobs we mastered, the home health care stories from the nursing students, and you may have heard about all the fun little trips we've taken. By now, you're all preparing 1,000 questions to ask us as we set our feet back on the beautiful American soil we call "home", so I'm not going to describe our last days, that will be something for you ask us about in person.

What I will discuss is what I have learned here. I'll share with you all my struggles, my victories, and what I hope to bring back to my life in Delaware.

It may shock you read this, but I'm not especially skilled when it comes to dealing with small children. I'm not very confident in my abilities to win over a child's affection. However, I also learned that I lack patients in dealing with small children. After the first couple days of roasting in the sun in Overcome for the holiday clubs, my neck was a little sensitive to all the little finger nails digging into it. I knew my attitude needed to change if I was going to make it another day without going crazy. I needed a Christ-like attitude. No, I needed to BE Christ to those kids. To be a Christian is to be a keyhole for non-Christians to see Christ through. My bitterness was not giving these kids a good image of Christ at all. So I reasoned that if Jesus could come down from His throne of honor and glory and present Himself as a servant to mankind only to be crucified for it, I could suffer through a sun-burnt neck and a little clawing.

That was just the first week. From there I feel like I learned so much about what faith I thought I had. It turns out I am not one who lives by faith, and it really bothers me! We heard stories of people being called to ministry without any resources by which to do it, yet here they are. We heard stories of entire churches being built without having more than a penny to pay for it. We heard stories of a simple road trip from England to South Africa turning into a decision to stay in Capetown permanently by the time they hit Egypt. People here have such a dependence on God, and they see Him working in their lives daily. I found myself wondering why I don't have very many stories like that in my own life. Then it occurred to me, I'm not giving God any room to work in my life. Everything I do is very safe and logical. I do not live my the risk-taking faith that is required for meeting God. I asked myself if I could give up everything I hold closest to my heart if that was what God wanted. That is, can I give up my desire for a wife, a family, a nice home, a nice job, good health, etc. if it were God's will and calling that I not have any of that? And my answer can not be an honest yes...yet.

So now we've chipped off the chip of the iceberg that has been my internal conflict with my spiritual life and how I feel about it. These are not feelings that are exclusive to myself, I'm sure you can find very similar feelings from a number of other people on the team. You'll just have to ask them about it.

Moving on. Yes, today is our last day of waking up to a beautiful beach and amazing weather. It's our last day of driving on the "wrong" side of the road. It's our/my last day of not having to cook for myself. But rather than think about our time here being over and going back to the states to our lives, I would rather think of this return to the states as being our moving on to our next mission field. Our work here is done, but I think our work back home is just beginning. It's easy for me to say this since I'm not coming home to an overloaded school schedule (I'm done with school woot woot). But I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we want this experience to change our lives. We've met Christ here face to face. We came here with the idea that we would be helping these people, but now we feel as if we've received so much more than we're given. We want to be able to give that back.

Looking ahead, some of you will be seeing us in just a day or so. Yes, we'll have all kinds of stories to tell you. Yes, we'll have many pictures to show you. Yes, we'll be able to tell you about all the fun we've had. But this trip has meant so much more to us than a mere "good time". It will be very difficult for us to tell you everything about the trip and what we learned along the way. My challenge for you is to challenge us. Ask us how we're sharing Christ with those around us. Ask us what kind of Christ-like example we're being to those we see everyday. Ask us what risks we're taking for Christ. This is my challenge to you. This is my plea. Don't let us forget what we've learned. Don't let us forget South Africa.

Be Blessed. Be Cool. Keep it Real. Love Ya all.

-Eric

P.S. sorry for any grammatical errors/misspelled words. grammar and spelling aren't really priorities right now.

Hello All

It being the last few days of our time here, I've been trying to think of the most meaningful moments that I've had here. This month has felt like a whirlwind of different people and places, and it can be overwhelming to try and pinpoint exactly what God has been trying to teach me. However, one person in particular has really challenged my worldview, caused me to question my lifestyle at home, and helped me understand the love of God in a more powerful way.

 Our team has really enjoyed the time we spent at Living Grace, which is a ministry that reaches out to homeless people in the community. At first the idea of interacting with homeless people was really intimidating - mostly because homeless people are so foreign to me. I was worried that I would have nothing to say to them, that I couldn't relate, that I wouldn't be able to encourage someone whose life is so tragically different from my own. I was wrong.

 

The second week into our trip I met a woman named Deena at lunchtime. I approached her as she was eating her lunch alone, and within seconds she began sharing her story with me. At 68 years old, she has been abandoned by both her husband and her daughters, raped, and left to live out on the streets without a home. While sleeping on the street, a couple of young kids stole all of her possessions, leaving her with nothing to her name. This woman is completely alone. She shared with me how angry she feels, how unjust her circumstances are, and how hard it is to keep from getting frustrated when your life is entirely about survival. As she spoke, I was struck with how normal she was. Talking to her was easy and simple, and hearing her story made me realize my stereotypes and prejudices about people in her situation. She told me that one of the hardest things about being homeless is that people pass you by and treat you like you're gargabe, like you're not even human. Her words struck me with such an intensity because I realized that I look at homeless people as subhuman as well.

 

In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." I've heard that verse many many times before, but this time my heart really understood what it meant. Deena was the least of these. She is forgotten, bypassed, misjudged, and disheartened, and for one of the first times in my life I was able to love her instead of just passing her by. I got to pray with Deena and encourage her. The next two weeks I saw her again and spoke with her, hugged her, listened to her stories, and said goodbye. Its awesome to see her rely on God to protect her and keep her safe despite all of her hardships. She told me that when I go home I must stand up for people like her because I can make a difference. As she spoke, I felt like that was God talking directly to me saying, "you have seen both the horrible reality of injustice and the hope that God's love can bring, now go and do something about it."

 

As I prepare my heart to go home I am struck by how easy it is to forget that there are people out there like Deena who have so little and are reaching out for God's love. I'm not exactly sure what God wants me to take from my experiences with her. What I do know is that at Living Grace I saw God change people's lives in a radical way. There is no denying that God's love is powerful enough turn around the most dismal circumstances. I also know that the need is great at home. I feel like God is calling me to step up and do something about it, to humble myself and recognize that following God means loving the least of these.

 

Thank you for all of your support and encouragement. I speak for everyone by saying as sad as we are to leave such an amazing, beautiful place, we cannot wait to share our stories with the people that we love. :)

 

Denise

Hey this is Mark,

On Monday we went to Living Grace (the soup kitchen). When we got there they asked us if we could prepare a devotion for the afternoon and if we could lead the worship. So we went about our day, cutting vegetables as we usually do. I forgot that we even had to do the devotion and worship until the leader came back from the store to join us. She asked if anyone wanted to help plan the lesson. At first I didn't think much of it and kept on cutting, but she asked a few more times, sounding more and more desperate with each request. Each time I felt like the Spirit was calling me to speak up. This is something that I would never usually volunteer to do. Just the night before I had been talking about how I feel like God uses me the most when I am working outside of my comfort zone and doing things that I would never normally do. This trip I felt very comfortable and not very effective. I decided that I would share my testimony, something I do not enjoy doing because I have to rehash the parts of my life that I don't like the most. I also can't stand public speaking.

God used those things that I had been through to speak to the homeless people. I could tell that they were really listening, not just spacing out like I normally see them doing. There were head nods and all of their eyes were on me. We shared the story of the lost sheep that is in Luke 15. Then I shared my testimony, and ended with an excerpt from The Hole in the Gospel that had a verse from 2 corinthians 12:19 [I think it should be something like my grace is sufficient for you my power is made perfect in your weakness (not a direct quote)].

Aunty Joan came up and said that if anyone wanted to get help from Christian counselors. I got a few handshakes which has never happened from a bunch of the people there. I decided to sit down next to a guy who had been a part of something like the Merchant Marines. He told me that he has some of the same problems that I was having. Ricardo was his name, our conversation got interrupted because we were supposed to be leaving. As I started to leave I asked if there was anything that I could pray for him for, and he said work and his addiction. So I started to leave but got held up. God was definitely working in him because he came up to me and said he wanted to start his recovery and wanted to know how to. He made my whole trip with this. God worked through me. Wow! Could there be a better feeling than this? He took this broken person (me) to help plant the seed. Hopefully there were others that will come because of the ministry that is present there.