How Do You Sum Up South Africa? (Part 1)

I just got back from 12 days in KwaZulu Natal region of South Africa. On the 25 hour journey it took me to get home, I had some time to think about how I wanted to share my trip. The first question that came to mind was, "how do you sum up South Africa?" I experienced a great deal in such a short time, and any explanation cannot compare to what I was apart of. But I will try my best. This will have to be in a series of posts, because only one will not do it justice. The focus of this post will be what I got to do every day.

Working with embercast (shout out Tony Sheng) has taught me a handful of things, one of them being to write down your mission trip experience 3 ways; a 20 minute, a 2 minute, and a 20 second description. This post will be my 2 minute summation of South Africa.

First off, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported my trip, whether it be financially or with prayers, all of the contributions allowed for this life changing trip to take place.

My definition of the abstract concept of "beautiful" has changed in two weeks.

Our team of 18, most of which were strangers to me, started the trip visiting Door of Hope, where I originally thought we would spend our whole week. We saw a ministry devoted to saving children abandoned on the street. The mothers can leave their newborn in a metal box, resembling a portable tool box, and someone inside is notified there is a baby that has been delivered. The child is then nursed back to life, and once they are healthy enough, they are put in the system for adoption. These kids were breathtaking. It was one of the greatest joys in my life to play with these healthy kids that were left to die on the streets. God has a good plan for each and every one of them. They came from such terrible circumstances, but they are going to be adopted. I cannot think of a better representation of Christ's love for us, pulling us out of the mess we were in, and adopting us into an eternal family.

After our short visit we drove to Winterton, where the majority of our trip was spent. Our team of 18 was split between two communities to help a missionary named Sofi at her center called Isibani in an urban setting, and to help Betsy in her ministry called Thembulethu in a more rural community. 

The first half of my week was spent at Thembuletu, a ministry in Loskop that translates to "Our Hope," a name the community gave Betsy. The mission work was very relational. We went on home visits and showed love to people in really tough situations. The first day was my favorite! I got to shadow Spo, the social worker, who was checking in on clients. I am pursuing a degree in social work so the opportunity to be on the field with her, the only day of the week she was there, was truly a godsend. The common theme of the visits involved concerns about HIV. It was either a family member not willing to tell the infected person they were sick, or an ill person rejecting medication. Community is so strong that they rather be accepted in the community than address a health risk. Similar to the stigma on mental illness in the United States, HIV is something that no one wants to admit to or talk about, even though it is fairly common.
I was so moved by how Spo used her work as her mission. She would repeatedly tell her patients that she cares for them because God cares for them, and that even though she may not have all the answers, she can trust God does, and hopes that they would trust God, too. I thought I wanted to be a social worker, but now I know for sure that I do. After such an intense and emotional day, Spo was so full of grace and love, and I pray I can be half the social worker she is.

The next day we went on home visits with a nurse, and heard many praise stories of people being healed or getting access to modern medicine because of Thembuletu's ministry. I don't think I got half way through the day without tearing up. As I observed this rural community, I was overwhelmingly aware of the fact that the working class was nowhere to be found. Grandmothers, or gogos, were watching over grandchildren while the parents were working in the cities far away not sending any financial support back, or they just disappeared. The majority of the community can't work, which inevitably creates a cycle of poverty.

If you didn't see their homes, you would never guess they were poor. Their spirits were more full and lively than I have seen in a long time. They are aware they have little; they're not oblivious of what's available in the cities and what wealthier people have, but I can honestly say they aren't seeking those fleeting things. The mindset of entitlement is nowhere to be found, and for that, I truly envy their lifestyle. Not every meal is guaranteed, so each meal is received with true thanksgiving and joy.

Kids play, mostly with old glass bottles or worn out tires, but they play together and truly enjoy life. It was hard to feel sorry for them, when they were so content with their lives. I didn't leave pitying anyone as I originally anticipated. If anything I envied them for their satisfaction with simplicity. That's not to say they don't face difficulties. Many families bury family members in their yards who have died prematurely, and face their own diagnosis of life threatening illnesses, but that's not the first thing they would tell you. They would welcome you into their home, and share a smile and a hug and offer you anything they could, before you heard a single hardship they faced.

In Isibani we did more labor-intensive work. We painted a bunch of walls a nice teal color, because we had to leave our UNCW pride there, of course. After painting, we got to pray over the rooms that we painted for the children that are going to learn in there. I enjoyed this ministry because it wasn't like we got to see the impact of our work, but we gave it up to God hoping new rooms would be a blessing to the community. We also cleared up the yard of a couple that literally could not get out of their house. The wife recently had her leg amputated, and her husband had a stroke leaving him in a wheel chair and paralyzed on one side of his body. We were able to smooth out their driveway and clear their yard of all the trash. Their smiles afterwards were the best part.

We went to a church on Sunday which was also a huge highlight. The pastor, Musa, was in jail for selling drugs when God called him to plant a church in the ancestor worship community he grew up in. He was rejected by his family, and had a hard time planting, but knew what God had called him to. Every Saturday, he would go to a mountain top and pray for the community. There was a fire that spread through the town and up the mountain, burning everything except for the place Musa prayed in. Because of that, many came to Christ, and I got to worship with them, and share a little bit of what God has done in my life with them. Their worship and pure joy gives me chills just thinking about as I write this. I wish everyone could have seen them, they were the picture of freedom in Christ. Nothing would stop their worship, like seriously they sang and danced for a very long time, and it was so real. Not a script, not a moment that wasn't authentically praising God. This is where God's treasure is. In a little, cramped church in a rural community in the middle of nowhere South Africa. That is the church we need to model, because there is nothing to them but their love for Christ.

We finished the trip by just enjoying South Africa and God's creation there. We went on three safaris over two days, a night safari, a day time, and a boat safari. All of which were absolutely breathtaking and it was incredible to see the diversity and the beauty in everything.

The best part about the trip was really seeing Jesus more. His love for my team, the people we were serving, the beauty of a life following him. There was nothing physically beautiful about their way of life, or our labor, but the spiritual benefits were incomparable. I really understood biblical concepts more- like a day's journey, and selling cows for a wife (which almost happened to a girl on my team hahaha), or the lepers of society. Nothing was better than being with people who had HIV or TB and realizing their place in society. And there I got to be, sitting in their little houses, loving them and praying for them. I don't think I understood Jesus' ministry until I was in that moment. I have never seen the gospel more beautifully, in its purest sense, than worshiping and praying in English among others praying in Zulu. If that isn't heaven on earth, as the Lord's Prayer suggests, then I don't know what is.

Okay, I lied. Maybe this was more like my 20 minute summary, and there is more to come in future posts. If you have ever tried to explain God's characteristics to someone, you understand how incredibly limiting language can be. There never seems to be the right words to capture everything you see, and what I saw in South Africa is much like that. When I say beautiful, it means a million things now. Beauty is endless. It takes form in little faces with so much potential, and an incredible sunset with rich colors, and animals that are so majestic and graceful and scary and powerful all at the same time. And all of those things are beautiful. But I have seen beautiful things before, I just think after these two weeks I understand beauty. It's not something just to see and admire, but to be apart of. That sounds a bit hippy-ish, I know, but what I'm trying to say is all these things portray heaven on earth, and being apart of that heaven on earth is what its all about.
So you can actually see what I saw, here are some pictures!