ALPHA AND OMEGA

  BY  DOUG ROLAND

              After the sermon on a warm Florida morning in July, 2010,  we were invited to go up to the front of the sanctuary of our home church, Hyde Park United Methodist.  We knew what it was about - our little contribution to the unsuspecting folks in South Africa.  

The clerical staff surrounded us in a half circle. This was the moment our commitment would be broadcast and become final. Until then, it was fun to think about.  Fear gripped my stomach.  I thought to myself, "Please, could we just forget about it and continue our ordinary lives"?  I also thought about making a break for it, or throwing a Hail Mary. Where were our allies, those who thought we were crazy to be leaving to serve in an unknown and very dark place? They must have decided to stay away. Instead, members of the congregation were asked to come forward and lay hands on us. The weight of their expectations sealed any notion of backing out.  Escape was no longer an option. We had been well taught, and, in the 38th year of our marriage, we heard "Who shall I send?"  We answered, "here we are Lord, take us".    

South Africa is a tough place to live.  You know that if you've read this blog regularly.  Nevertheless. the urge to bag it and go home never got traction.  We had answered a call that had been forming for decades, and we have been  surrounded  by prayers from around the world. 

 It has been very difficult this last week to say goodbye to our colleagues at the seminary, to the seminarians, to the people who helped us get an important program launched, and to our "outside" friends from Run/Walk for Life who gave us three farewells. 

 Tomorrow morning, we leave South Africa with a piece of what has been another life, one that is attached to us and has made us different. We will forever see the world differently, filtered through the struggles and successes of another culture. 

This morning, 33 months after we left Tampa, the people of Wesley Methodist Church in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, gathered for one of several Easter Sunday services.  As part of the service, the minister, who has become a friend, thanked us for our work at the seminary, and  prayed for our safe return.  The seminary president happened to also to be there and promised that he would endeavor to build upon the program we created and nurtured at SMMS.

We left home in 2010 buoyed with a prayer. The morning, we ended with a prayer.  Between the bookends of prayers are volumes of sweet and sorrowful memories. Though it seems like the end, it may not be.  It's going to take us a long time to assimilate what we've done, though in several ways, it's a new beginning.  Life's rhythms  carry on and we would do well to listen to them.   

Finally,  we end by encouraging you listen to

ask yourself what your passion is, and step OUT OF THE BOX.

Note:   We intend to continue this blog when we return home.   A different kind of life may be waiting for us.  We have fewer years now and we are determined to make them count.

COME BACK , AGAIN AND AGAIN

by  Doug Roland

                 I wrote earlier about Come Back Mission (CBM), an organization, without which I might not have had the courage to come to Africa.  

I met the founders and drivers of CBM in 2007.  It was my first "mission trip",  leading a team of three others.  None of us had ever been here. The next year, I led a second team, including Cheri.  Two years later, we came to South Africa to serve at the seminary. First, though, we stopped in Joburg to spend our first two days with the leaders of CBM and absorb some of their dedication and determination. We felt ready to head for Pietermaritzburg, 6 hours away. It wasn't easy. CBM remains the foundation of our South African family.

I've learned many things from CBM:

a.  self-sacrifice;

b.  have a vision that extends beyond what you think is possible; and 

c. put God at the center of the project and do everything in His name.  Otherwise, it is not worth doing. 

Here's an example:

CBM wanted to purchase abandoned farm   devoid of any plumbing, wiring, and light fixtures. It was last used as a meth lab. When I saw it in 2010, all I could think of was how disappointed they would become later. It was simply to big, too risky.    There was no established plan on what to do with it or how to pay for it. But they saw a vision I could not have imagined, so I just played along. 

In early 2012, we were invited to come back to the farm and help celebrate the opening of Hadassah, a facility for women with drug and other substance addictions. It is the only facility of its kind in the province of Gauteng.  The place was cleaned up and trimmed.  The house had been cleaned, repaired, fitted with new equipment, wiring, roofing, the whole thing. Bedding was donated or made by a number of people.  One of the exterior rooms was funded in part by a member of our home church who named it after her grand-daughter. It was beautiful and ready to go except there were no women, at least not yet.

A few months later, we came back to see my nephew from Houston (after about 11 years apart).  He had written us that he sensed God's tug on his life to do something bold, like going to South Africa. He used his expertise in HIV/AIDS and served as a CBM volunteer teaching the 16 women in the facility.  His biggest surprise was how he was welcomed as a full-fledged member of this special family. The women adored him.  He wants to come back.

        That weekend, I met an arrestingly beautiful young woman named Fairyl. In a round table discussion I wondered how such a bright and beautiful  person could end up in a drug rehab facility, and remain so joyful.  

   

Two weeks ago,  we drove the 500 kilometers for a final visit and to attend the first anniversary of the dedication. Cheryl Pillay, founder and driving force of CBM, reminded the crowd of 150 or so people that, a year earlier, Hadassah had no women.  One year later, it was celebrating its third graduation.  Each women has stayed for 6-9 months.  Only 1 or 2 entered and then left. 

Today, there are 40 on the waiting list. I could not help thinking about how the very idea of buying a farm was a wing and a prayer.  In retrospect, that's what it was.  

The ceremony was a beautiful and heartfelt tribute to these women who have climbed mountains few would even think about.  Cameras flashed all afternoon to freeze in time the poignant moments of four graduates  who were starting new lives in their elegant party dresses and tiaras.  

A portion of the ceremony was led by few prior graduates. They had come to support their sisters and help them face the next step.  Fairyl was one of them.  She told the crowd that she had been at the opening of Haddasah a year earlier, high as a kite on drugs and wondered what she was doing there. She told of her steady use of cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, pot and other recreational drugs. With the help of all the people associated with Hadassah, she fought the effect of amoral chemicals and kicked the habit.  At the heart of it all was CBM.

When the girls with the new crowns spoke, each gave great praise to their supportive parents, fellow women in the journey, staff, friends, etc. One of them, through her tears, thanked her mother . . .  "for allowing me to be your daughter."  At the end of a short testimony, each women said that, without God at the center, they would not have made it. Most were planning or had already started to reconcile with their home churches to continue their journeys back to God. It was a celebration against the odds, a story of courage, love, joy and a complete U-turn for these women. 

And Fairyl?  She is now enrolled in the University of Johannesburg, studying to enter the field of social work.

This is what it's all been about - taking the risk of leaving a comfortable, life and going where the action really is. I suggest that this is what we are being trained for. It offers a reward that cannot be measured by any worldly standard.

I thank those people who met me at the Johannesburg airport in 2007.  They have inspired me and I am honored to have been a part of what has become an international effort, with support from a growing varierty of sources.

So, thanks Cheryl, Roy, Ruby, Joe, Faradeba, Auntie Connie, Ruthie, and Bernie.  You've changed the life of this midwestern white boy.  You led me back to where I should be. 

         Praise God for his limitless grace.

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