humbled by their joy....

this afternoon i had the pleasure of attending the latest presentations by the dutch sports students who have been serving with us over the last 5 months, and i will post about their wonderful help and support tomorrow as i have a further post to share about the other experience i had after enjoying their presentation.

keeping the home fires burning!

for those of you living in the western cape you will know that we have been hit by a severe storm which not only bought some much needed rain (for some) but high winds which i'm not sure any of us really wanted, save a few mad suffers who might benefit from the waves over the weekend! this type of weather is not unusual for this time of year in the cape but when it comes after a week of temperatures in the mid 20's with sunny hot days then its a bit more of a shock.

during the presentations from the dutch students we were battling to hear what they said due to the wind and rain, but once outside the full force of the storm really hit me. we were due to be running our sports outreach at the two farm clubs this afternoon which follows the weekly update/download and sports planning meeting but seeing as though the weather was so bad i had to let our sports mentors know that not only the sport but also the meeting had been cancelled.

happy family after a simple act of kindness

upon arriving at the home of one of our mentors, whom he shares with his brother and sister who are keen members of our sports club in the iraq informal settlement, i found the family huddled around their fire, and who can blame them, however this fire was set in an old metal bath tub which was full of simple wet twigs and with no chimney the single room which has no windows but an open door was full of eye streaming smoke.

after discussing the situation about the weather and the lack of the meeting or sports this afternoon he informed me that the tin sheeting which makes up the roof, and also most of the sides of his home, was leaking, the wind blowing the horizontal rain not only through the roof but also the walls too.

following my blog last monday about the different situations i found myself in, entitled some days that bite back, which can be read by clicking on this link, a friend from our elgin united church offered to help out with some tin sheeting which he had laying around.....we are hoping to get out to sort the roof of one of our helpers from rainbow smiles early next week, which i admit is a little late for this bout of rain, but this afternoon i thought that it would be a blessing to our sports mentor and his family if i could at least make a few of those sheets available to him.

preparing the fire outside

i returned to the village of hope only to find that the sheets we had been blessed with were a different profile to those already on the boys home, so instead of taking them i gathered together some old sail cloth and a few heavy blocks for them to make a hasty repair which might enable them to patch the worst leaks, which as always appeared over their beds!

i also picked up a basket full of dry wood so as to bless them with extra fuel which wasn't green and therefore wouldn't give off the smoke which really made my eyes run....it wasn't much but i think they were pleased with the thought.

whilst i was on my return visit with my simple supplies i saw the father of another family making a fire in an old paint pot, which he was carrying in with a stick into their tin home, upon inspection they invited me in for a coffee, which was much appreciated, we sat huddled around this fire, again with much smoke, and shared stories which made us all laugh, due to my lack of xhosa and their lack of english.

taking the fire into the home, a risky business!

after taking their teenage daughter down to the local spazza store to buy a cabbage to make up their 'watery' soup i left them to their lives whilst i came back to mine feeling very humbled by the joy that i had experienced during my hour or so spent in that wonderful little community.

i can't say that i did much and i know that there are literally thousands of others in our community with the same if not more immediate and desperate needs but i was able to bless around 10 people and if i only achieved that with a smile, which i hope showed them that not only myself but Jesus cared for them, then i sit here a little happier than i would have done if i had i turned a blind eye and gone home to sit in front of my warm fire complete with chimney.

personal note:- i don't want to belittle anything that has gone on in the past in this wonderful if not challenged country and i know that some of my forefathers may have had a lot to do with that, i can take that on the chin and only apologies for that on their behalf, but i would challenge anyone currently living in south africa not to be touched by the stories that i share on this blog. we might not look the same or even speak the same language, but surely we can't ignore the fact that Jesus calls us to love our neighbours as ourselves. 


it seems hard to cast everyone under the same banner because of things that have happened in the past, or even now as we sit here reading this blog, but we will never build up the trust and relationships that must develop if this country is to move forward so lets start somewhere cause to blame the past is so yesterday!

yes the people i shared the afternoon with do have their own homes in the transkei (eastern cape) and yes they have chosen to come to grabouw to seek employment offered by the highly labour intensive apple production, but none of them was complaining about their lot, they weren't asking for a hand out but seeing their plight i offered a helping hand to make their situation a little easier.

the thembalitsha foundation offers hope through health, education and training, we seek to develop people to a place of self reliance, but there are some days where one is called just to give of themselves and from the wealth that we have, be that financial, education or time, and that's all i did today and i would challenge you to do the same too.

so for any of you reading this with an internet connection, which should mean that you have electric power, a roof over your head with a fire and a chimney, which will also probably mean that you have a fridge with some food in then please don't tell me that you are cold, tired or hungry, cause i have met some people today for whom that is really true and they're not complaining!....

....i was spending some time thinking of how i should end this post, please don't hear this as a triad from some self righteous religious nut who thinks he has got it all sorted and therefore you should totally understand where i am coming from. no i am an ordinary guy who has to daily die to self, putting the thoughts of others first and asking God for wisdom, understanding and knowledge to cope with all that i am faced with everyday.

what i would like to finish with is the thought that those of us who try to follow Jesus and his teachings, becoming 'little christs' to this world, surely have an understanding that it's not great to be the one who casts the first stone and yet its us that so often we sit in judgement of those who seem unable to help themselves whilst sitting with all the power known to man in the universe at our disposal.

we can chose to look the other way, to have such an important diary of important things that need to get done, including racing to an event at church where we have been given a word to encourage others but fail to stop to help those along the way, or we may be the worship leader who is called to usher the people into the presence of God via song and liturgy, but yet be so busy that we miss what God has really called us to do.

as i see it God gives us ample opportunity to serve those in need, indeed james tells us in God's word to us that true religion is found in feeding the widows and the orphans, or maybe as Jesus would say 'to love our neighbour as our self', 'to go the extra mile', 'give one of your two coats', or pounds, to those without, this i believe is our chance to see God's kingdom come through us and that is what i find hard to accept when we can become so consumed by self that we miss God's call on our lives.