Dear Family and Friends, July 3, 2009
We were without a computer for over a week and this week has been busy with catch up with Chris. We are also still waiting for our car to be completed. We are using a rental car and would like to have this all taken care of. Not sure when it will all be finished—we have heard that Swaziland is noted for its long repair time.
We will report about Kruger in another blog—we might just wait until we go to another park and include all of the pictures in one blog. We spent two and a half days there and then drove to Johannesburg for some different experiences. Jeri became one of the official drivers and what an experience she had—driving all over the city and then into Soweto. It was actually quite fun once she got the hang of it. Remember, she was once a school bus driver!? Of course she only had two adults in her car and they were pretty quiet. We made good friends with them and hope to visit them when we go to Nashville the next time.
Our time is Jo’burg was spent in the presence of some very special people from the Comeback Mission. What a loving, lively group they were. CBM is made up of recovered drug addicts, entrepreneurs, blue and white collar works working together as volunteers. This is a mission which says in its vision statement: “to create havens of freedom for people trapped in substance abuse, to create hope for those affected by poverty and to offer love and acceptance to those infected and affected by AIDS.” Our first night, we were served a feast in one of the members homes—all 27 of us plus many of their board members. We ate, sang and danced with them that first night and then it was off to members homes for the next two nights for the youth and their leaders.
Gary and I spent the nights at a conference center called Common Ground which is owned by the Methodist Church of South Africa. The next day we met the group over at a place called Heavenly Valley, which is anything but that. It is a “temporary” housing area that is in actuality shacks with no electricity or plumbing. The city relocated these people to make room for more white settlers over 39 years ago! There have now been two generations of the same families living here for all these years. An unbelievable place. The work for the day was to paint a preschool (called a crèche in South Africa) that is run by Comeback Mission (CMB) for 35 vulnerable (impoverished) children. It is only a tin shack but they painted the outside and then on the inside painted trees, flowers, the alphabet and other brightly colored pictures to liven it up a bit. They also painted the little house next door.
Gary and I and a small group went into many of the homes to pray with the people. This was an incredibly moving experience. These people, who live in such poverty, invited us into their homes with such humility. One of the CMB women, Bernie, was the interpreter and she would ask if there was anything they wanted us to pray for. “Safety for my teenage son out on the streets”; “a job”; “healing between my daughter and I”; my son has AIDS—please make him well”; “sobriety”; “help in making new friends who are not on drugs”; for my baby to grow up healthy”. Aren’t these some of the same things we wish for? Then with all of us holding hands, a member of the group would put into a prayer the needs and wants of these homeowners. In one home, a man lived with his 12 year old son. He had “stayed away from the bottle for 2 months”. Before moving into this settlement, he and his son would just ”lay their heads down wherever they could find a place. Now his son is in school and he is trying to stay sober. Bernie basically told him he needed to stay away from his friends who are still drinking and when he was strong enough he might be able to help them in the same way that he was helped. This for us was the most moving experience—to be in the presence of a man who was so intent on changing and hearing he and Bernie share (in their language—we could feel what was going on, even though we didn’t understand the words). Bernie is a woman who lives so strongly by her faith and that night during the sharing time, when asked “where did you see God today” Bernie’s name came up more often than anything else.
That afternoon, after completing the painting and having lunch, we all waked over the Freedom Park Methodist Church, located in one of the black townships close by. This was basically a community meeting being led by the youth of the church. There was open discussion about HIV/AIDS, poverty, unemployment, teen pregnancies—many of the same kinds of discussions going on in US churches. We also had a discussion about our new president, Obama and their new president, Zuma. The discussion was lively and then they divided us into groups to find some answers to these questions. The youth were dressed in Western clothing and the older women (no men present) dressed in their traditional clothing—Xhosa, Zulu, and others. So beautiful and colorful. I have included some of them in this blog.
Another wonderful, fun-filled dinner at another home. Good-byes were hard because we had been in the presence of people who are making such a difference in the community. They are all basically fulltime volunteers who give of themselves so freely.
I will continue with another blog about our last days in Jo’burg and what we have been doing this week.
Love, Jeri and Gary
This picture is of our first night and the singing and dancing after dinner.
Common Ground--where we stayed while the group stayed with families from CMB
One of the few water faucets for the 39 families
Praying outside of one families home while they were gone
Painting the inside walls of the preschool
One way to haul a car body!
Some of the preschool children at Heavenly Valley
Freedom Hill Methodist Church
Inside the church (very rustic)
One of the Xhosa (Kosa) women
Some of the MaMa's
GoGo's (grandmothers)
Aren't they beautiful?
