WRAP-UP Pt. III

      By  Doug Roland 

         In  WRAP-UP Pt. II, I drew a grim picture of South Africa.  I wrote what I saw and read daily on TV and in the print media. We have ourselves witnessed many troubling things.  In that sense, Pt. II is accurate. 

I received an e-mail response to the last post from a reader, a friend who is a Methodist minister in South Africa.  He commented on Wrap-Up II with the following:

"I'm concerned that whilst all that you cite is true, Doug, it is not

the WHOLE truth, and sometimes half-a-truth is not the truth at all." 

He's right. The is a second, more hopeful story.

  In spite of the painful difficulties in the land, there are also, outside the glare of the klieg lights microphones, and print reporters millions of people carrying on bravely up the long steep hill to better lives for themselves and for others . Their daly hard, battling hunger, miserable housing, lack of money to pay children's school fees and uniforms, disease, corruption , rampant crime and unemployment.  And yet, they carry on day by day often with spontaneous joy.  Most of the poor remain hopeful.  The only explanation I can see is that they have an  abiding faith to believe that the vision of 1994 will be renewed.  They know that while their government has failed them, there are others who labor without notice to revive the dream, one step at a time. 

The spirit of altruism  comes partly from the colonial era.  Immigrant farmers cultivated much of the land and soon learned quickly that the local people, dependent on them, had no training.  Many farm family wives stated projects to help their workers in basic skills and some physical comfort. While some of this may have been self-serving,  a  budding culture of volunteers took hold in the agricultural community.  This spirit of service to others continues to this day.  

Over time, an wide array of small projects cropped up to help people in need.  The founders of these organizations give of themselves to the non glamorous work of serving the needs of others.   South Africa is blessed with such these heroes,  angels working tirelessly in serving the "least of these" without expectation of material reward or recognition.  We have come to know the few listed below.

*  Gail Trollip started a children's relief project in her garage 12 years ago.  Today Tabitha Ministries is home for  60-70 parentless children.  It also shelters several hundred  HIV positive children in a large township nearby. These children cannot remain at home after school because it is too dangerous to stay there during the day without a parent. There are gardening projects and food distribution.  The agency is blessed with donors across the world. 

        *  Rob Kluge was a professor of entomology at a local college.  Years ago, he suffered significant paralysis from a snake bite that compromised his ability to speak such that he had to leave his job.  A man of deep faith, he was led to starting a project on his own in a township of approximately 35,000 people, 50% of whom are HIV positive and with an unemployment rate of 80%.  Today, 13 years later, his agency (Masibumbane,  meaning "being together") has 11 different projects such as AIDS counseling, food parcels, gardening, after school programs and managing money to make better the lives of their clients.  He also employs a manager who usually "translates' for Rob.  A local Methodist church also assists in the project.

*Pastor Jabu  heads up a multi-agency project located in the old Pietermaritzburg jail.  His personal passion is teaching skills to teens and other young people to help them become self-sufficient.  As well, he has trained and empowered a large community in building its own church.

*  Bruce Taylor left his job in business to start, Walk in the Light, a non-profit agency to serve the forgotten community of Haniville.  To sustain the program, there is a garden of rose geraniums.  The flowers are then distilled on site that yields a base liquid sold to perfume companies. There is also  help with clothing, computer training, transportation to the clinics, a child care facility and a program that welcomes volunteers from around the world.

Our seminarians have been placed in each of these projects and several more. Not all of them enjoy these experiences. In time, I think they will become more valuable to them than they can now imagine.

We have had the privilege to go to these places with the seminarians.  One day we joined them to visit two homes in Haniville,  Fewer things can get you closer to what it is to be poor than to visit the homes - lean-to's, mud huts, corrugated metal with old tires holding down the roof.  The drinking water could be a kilometer away.  Many have no electricity.  Others tap into a live line.  

In the first home, the family made space in their crowded little house for us to sit.  We talked, prayed and sang.  The lady of the house was going through some unnamed illness.  At the end, we prayed and sang again. She shed tears of gratitude.  A single caring moment can be  powerful.

We moved down the rutted dirt road to see a gentleman in his dark mud hut that he shares with his sister.  A piece of cloth hung from a wire divided the house into two rooms.  He had suffered an ankle injury and was barely mobile.  In his own language, he told the seminarians that it was very painful.  Cheri noticed this and was concerned that he would not use his leg enough, and it would eventually atrophy. She then showed him some simple exercises that would help strengthen his leg and ankle. He looked at her skeptically at first until he realized that she was helping him.  He then started practicing an exercise, painful as it was.  A seminarian prayed for him without a prompt.   As we left, the man thanked us, especially with his eyes.  A few weeks later, another seminarian reported back that we was now fully mobile and better able to care for himself.  

There are heroes all around us in our own area.  A 2011 publication lists non-profit organizations providing children services in KwaZulu-Natal Province.  I counted 119 of them.  Most are very small, often located in remote places and struggling to stay afloat.  These are ordinary people who have heard a call that gives them strength to carry on.  Their vision is to improve the lives of those in the communities who come to them or are visited.  To an outsider, small projects like these may seem inadequate.  But while grandiose plans are debated by the government for years at a time, the real work is done by these small organizations, one day at a time, one person at a time.

This is what we have been doing here for these nearly three years - exposing  future ministers to the truth that it's usually the simple things that confirm Christ's presence.  We too have learned that these visits are precious moments that affirm the dignity and value of the poor.   The mission of the seminary is to empower ministers to be true servants, to go from the pulpit to the mud hut, the hospital, the hungry, the prisons, the lame and the poor. Then seminarians take the first small steps to put the church on the front lines of transformation of the the church and the country.  

Above:  four seminarians volunteering at a school for the mentally challenged.

Note 2:   We will continue writing including when we get home and experience re-entry.