September 8, 2010
Today was life-changing. And I mean that without any kind of exaggeration whatsoever. Today, God showed me a large part of what He wants me to do on this earth, what message He wants me to bring back to the U.S. from my time in South Africa.
This morning, we had a meeting with George as he delivered a message called “Righteousness and Justice.” His purpose was, in essence, to show us the heart of God through various scriptures which illustrated God’s heart for the poor and vulnerable. An illustration that rang so true for me was that 1 John states that if we say that we love God, but we do not love our neighbor, we’re liars. The vertical relationship we have with God through Christ and the horizontal relationship we have with our neighbors are interdependent. We as Protestants understand that vertical relationship, and Catholics understand that horizontal relationship, but very few can seem to get them working in unison. While most of the volunteers spoke of their frustrations that privileged Christians can so easily turn a blind eye to the less fortunate, my frustration came from a different perspective. At home, it seems as though our churches don’t do enough to serve the poor and vulnerable because we feel as though we are the poor ones, and therefore it’s up to someone else to help others. We are too caught up in our own concerns, in trying to make our own ends meet, that we ignore the teachings of Christ, which command that we love our neighbors self-sacrificially. The verse at the end of the parable of the talents describes it best: “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” The staff member who was speaking to us explained that when you look at this verse in terms of our mentalities, it makes perfect sense. When we look at what we have and see our blessings, God gives us even more blessings. But when we look at what He’s given us, even if it seems little in our eyes, and say He’s given us nothing, why would He continue to bless us? We are so ungrateful! In the same way, when we give out of the “little” that we have, He will bless us beyond our comprehension. Our mentalities, therefore, must shift. We can no longer leave it to someone else to serve our communities. We must give out of what we have, and it will be added unto us. You will be hearing a lot more from me on this concept, because it is something that God has placed on my heart for the long run. But this is just to share briefly with you what God has been speaking to me about.
After that meeting, we had lunch and then a bit of a culture/language lesson from a couple staff members. It was really interesting and informative, because even though I knew some basic cultural do’s and don’ts from living in the country for a year, there were some things I had never thought of before, and others which were particular to working in a Christian organization. We also learned some basic greetings in SeSwati and Shangaan, the two local languages most prevalent in the work Hands does here in South Africa. That was fun, especially because my friend Sabatha has already prophesied over my life that I’m going to find me a Swati man here in Mpumalanga! LOL =P
This evening, we decided to go out for dinner in White River (WOOOO night out on the town!) I really think I know how people in the country feel now, where the big event of the week is going out to McDonald’s or something… LOL! Just kidding… it wasn’t McDonald’s… it was actually a really cute restaurant and we got to meet my roomie’s friends from the church we attended on Sunday. One of the girls had lived in Maryland for a year so we were exchanging stories about cultural misunderstandings and her times hanging out in Georgetown. It was a lovely evening! Since then, we’ve just been chatting about Hands at Work and what an amazing family it is. It’s truly a blessing to be here, to have this kind of support system around us. Definitely one-of-a-kind.
September 9, 2010
Today… was… deep! I feel like the days keep getting deeper and deeper. This morning, one of the staff members who is also in our small group led us in a discussion about what our expectations were/are in coming here, and what Hands actually does. It was really informative, number one, because we all came with only a partial picture of what the organization does. It was also really interesting because many of us hands-on, do-er types really have to come to grips with the fact that in order to empower communities to provide their own services which will be sustainable, we cannot “do” for them. So for example, we have a group member who’s a teacher and one who’s a nurse, and yet their roles will not be to teach or nurse but to help local community members provide those services for the widows, sick, and orphans in those communities.
To explain it more concretely, so you will know what I’m actually working towards here at Hands, I’ll explain a bit more. The vision of Hands at Work is to see the local church caring for widows, orphans, and the dying. Their model is to target the poorest of the poor, so they find communities in which no services are currently being provided; essentially, where capacity is lowest. They then identify the poorest groups of people within that community and target them for the initial services. Central to the Hands model is RELATIONSHIPS. Even the Hands staff, who do not directly provide any services, MUST know the names and faces of the people in the community, the careworkers, the pastors, etc. Personal connection is of the utmost importance because it was of the utmost importance to Jesus Christ. In discussing why relationships are so important, one of my fellow volunteers noted, “It’s the only way God works.” That statement blew me away because it is so simple and so true. It’s the only way God works. WOW.
Local community ownership is the other central part of the Hands model. Hands believes that God has placed people within each of these communities to rise up as leaders (“diamonds in the dust,” they call them.) While it would be much easier to control and dictate all that goes on, the services must be home-grown in order to insure that they truly fit the needs of the community, and that they will be sustainable.
The conversation then shifted to what our role is as volunteers, and to tell you the truth, my “job description” did not get any less ambiguous than it was before. (Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who doesn’t know exactly what I’m doing – I don’t, either!) The attitude of Hands is that we shouldn’t be able to describe exactly what we do, because we do whatever needs to be done to support the local community based organizations, in a variety of ways. Some people mostly work behind a desk, others spend more time in the communities, but ALL value strongly the need for relationships with those we are serving. Even those behind a desk 9-5, Monday-Friday, find time to spend in the community, getting to know people. Knowing those we serve is what makes us relevant. He encouraged us that our role may not be glorious, and we won’t be on the front lines, but if we pour ourselves into each relationship we will make an impact.
After that talk, we had lunch and then did our first community visit. We drove an hour north to the village of Belfast, where Hands at Work supports a community organization which does home-based care as well as a feeding program for orphans. We went on home visits with volunteers from the local church to visit sick gogos (grandmothers). There was a language barrier, as the church volunteers only spoke Shangaan, but a boy in grade 8 tagged along with us and translated into very basic English what they were saying. (He mostly just explained to us exactly what type of sickness the gogo was dealing with.) After the gogo chatted with the volunteers for a while, they asked us to pray for the gogo. It was a really powerful experience, praying for these ladies who so desperately need that feeling of being valued and cared for. In fact, that is the point of the home visits – to check on their health, definitely, but mostly to be a source of support and love. The community organizations which Hands supports does similar visits to child-headed households, where children who have been left orphaned are left in charge of their younger siblings. These visits have a major impact on the gogos and orphans benefitting from them, and it was an honor to go alongside the volunteers and be a part of what was happening.
After that, we came back and went to a baby shower for two staff members who are both due in mid-December! How exciting! Then we had supper and planned our “performance” for tomorrow, which apparently all new volunteers must do. So we planned a cute remix to “This Little Light of Mine” to perform for the rest of the staff tomorrow. Then I sat around with some of my favorite ladies on the staff, just joking around, and I realized that the four of us are from USA, Nigeria, Kenya, and Lesotho, and here we are all sitting there sharing stories and laughs. What a beautiful thing! I got to chatting to one of them in the bathroom, and it was so sweet. She was asking me about my acne, because it’s gotten quite bad in the past month or two, and I was telling her that it made me quite self-conscious. “But you’re still so beautiful,” she said. “Some people are just naturally beautiful!” And then I was singing as I was getting ready for bed, and she told me, “Even the angels are not singing better than you. I even stopped brushing my teeth to hear you!” It was so sweet and I was just thinking wow, I live with such beautiful people.
So in conclusion… God is GOOD! 
More updates soon. Love you guys!
“That was fun, especially because my friend Sabatha has already prophesied over my life that I’m going to find me a Swati man here in Mpumalanga!”
11/11/2011 is the wedding day, right?