Rocks, Ropes, and Religion

"This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

Most anyone who knows me is aware of three things thay I love to do; travel, missions, and climb(anything in sight).

Friday I found my personal Holy Grail. At the retreat we set up a rock climb on a small boulder on the beach. With a few penguins looking on I witnessed a bit of a miracle. People that come from groups that traditionally hate each other to the point of inflicting great harm were coming together to cheer and encourage each other to achieve sucess.

Now most of us in the U.S.A. are accustomed to seeing climbing walls here and there for recreation or team building exercises, but I was afraid this activity would not translate to this culture. I am pleased to say I was very wrong. People of all abilities and physiques were roping in and giving it a try to the enthusiatic prodding of their peers.

Although it was a rather small boulder they climbed as though it was Mt. Everest. Amanda Tiege had a hard time keeping up with getting them in the harness as one by one they came for the challenge.

"What does this have to do with religion?" you may ask. Those that attended the retreat continually spoke of how refreshing it was to get together, worship, and have fun in spite of their differences. These are the people on the front lines of everyday care and this retreat helps them know each other on a more personal level, a level where there are fewer differences getting in the way of service.

Today I saw people rise twelve feet closer to heaven.

Ethan

The Living Hope Retreat

We facilitated a retreat for the life skills educators and counselors of Living Hope yesterday and today...we have quite a few activities as well as songs planned for Thursday evening. Of couse, being in Africa, not going according to plan appears to be par for the course, but it was a great time of worship and praise! And everyone had a great time. I have to say it's pretty funny to watch Steve improvising amid the spontaneous praises and speeches.

On Friday, we managed to get volleyball, rock-climbing, and painting running as planned and reconvened as one group with more praise. And the food...it was a feast, everyone was well-fed and enjoyed the company.

Words cannot even begin to describe their singing and dancing. I will not leave a long post today, I will just leave you a video.

Steve Davis in Africa

Little did I know 48 years or so ago that all those Tarzan movies and comic books I ravenously consumed as a child would someday lead to an actual trip to Africa! I'm somewhat disappointed that my Tarzan yell and mastery of ape language has proven as useless to me now as it promised as a 7 year old (but good news for Vicki....I've not been seduced by any animal-skin clad "Janes" either!).

Instead of jungles and encounters with deadly beasts every 15 minutes, we've been witnesses to the most devastating predator of all - hopelessness. Rows and rows of makeshift shacks in a concrete and cardboard jungle. Drug addicted children and adults. Emaciated AIDS victims sitting on hospital beds with no one in their families who care enough to visit them.

Yet, despite the oppressive tragedy, there are glimmers of hope in the eyes and spirits of children and caring adults. As expected, we are blessed more each and every day than the seemingly meager blessings we bring with us. It is no wonder that Jesus uses children as the model citizens of his kingdom. Who else could trust and engage so completely in strangers as they?

The children of the Red Hill community are amazing. Within the last few weeks they have been terrorized by a horrendous fire that destroyed many of their homes. One reported seeing a slithering line of snakes out ahead of the blaze. How does one sleep at night with those kinds of real life nightmares?

So we come and offer them our attention and our interest in who they are and not much more....only ingredients that make today perhaps somewhat more palatable than yesterday. Were it not for a God who could take a mustard seed and grow a palatial tree house, it would not seem worth it. But we trust in Him and in His ability to make much out of nothing. He's so good at that!

Beyond the mission itself, we're having more fun together than anyone deserves. We have laughed ourselves silly! Every new and remotely funny experience lends itself to a haiku, a limerick, or, as was the case today, a new book concept: Chef Steve Mok's Top 100 Preparations for Penguin....and here they are:

stuffed penguin
penguin sausage
shake & bake penguin
steamed penguin
frozen penguin sticks
penguin cheese omelet
penguin souflet
penguin trail mix
penguin jerky
penguin kabob
lemon pepper penguin
penguin goulashe
penguin crepes
penguin lasagna
penguin pops
penguin turnovers
popcorn penguin
penguin noodle soup
penguin & chips
penguin nuggets
penguin au gratin
rotisserie penguin
penguin parmesan
penguin pita
penguin tacos
penducken (a combination of penguin, duck and chicken...Chef Mok's penguin of the day)
penguin pesto
penguin casserole
penguin soup
penguin pasta
smoked penguin
penguin sushi
penguin protein smoothy
General Tso's penguin
penguin salad
penguin chow mein
sweet & sour penguin
peanut butter & penguin sandwich
penguin melt
fillet of penguin
penguin almondine
moo goo gai penguine
penguin on the half shell
penguin steaks
penguin stir fry
roast penguin
penguin enchiladas
stir fry penguin
penguin burger with cheese
penguin bits
smoked penguin
penguin pizza
penguin prima vera
penguin dip
penguin pie
penguin preserves
penguin alamode
pickled penguin

More About Flowers

"Suffer the little children come unto Me..."

These are the words of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. I am not exactly sure which verse these words are in and I am too tired to get my Bible and find them and I am fairly certain Jesus did not say them in English but nonetheless these are the words that come to mind.

For the last two days we have hosted a back yard Bible Club of sorts in a shanty town called Red Hill. (I encourage you to visit my posting on last year's South Africa blog and read the first installment about flowers in Red Hill.)

Although I am a Dad, LOVING it by the way, I still get a bit overwhelmed when I am surrounded by sixty or so children all in need of attention. This is the situation we have been in for a few hours each day. Semi-controlled mayhem is the description that comes to mind. I see these children and see them craving love and attention. Many of them have lost one or more parents to AIDS. Many of them are abused. Many of them are malnourished and sick themselves, and yet all they want is someone to pay them a little loving attention.

I struggled with coming here and leaving my son Elijah. I knew I would miss his smile and the cuteness of his trying new words and the feel of his tiny arms around my neck. What I have realised though is how much he is loved by parents, grandparents, and a host of other relatives.

I have come here to share God's love, however I was not expecting that to be in the form or feeling of my fatherly love for Elijah. I am gaining a much better understanding of what God expects from us as Christians. I keep feeling like I should be vocally sharing the gospel with each of these children but I continually get frustrated with the language barrier.

As I sat there yesterday the afore mentioned verse came to mind. The kids were all around and I was unsure of what to do with them when I realized that Jesus did not speak deep theology to the children, he just let them come to him as they were and he loved them. He then used this action to teach deep theology to the adults.

This is where the flowers come in.

Having this realization about sharing the love of God the way I would show love to my son, I picked up a crayon and drew a very rudimentary flower for a little girl.
Next thing I new, kids were coming from all over and saying one word.

"Flower?"

Several broken crayons later I realized I had learned a lot about how simple and confoundingly deep God's love truly is.

Ethan

Unconditional Love

Monday marked the first day of our official work with Living Hope. We toured a few of the facilities that Living Hope operates in the southern suburbs of Cape Town and I can't find the right words to describe the impact Living Hope is having in the community.

In the afternoon, we worked with a bunch of young kids in the Red Hill area during Kids Club. A fire destroyed many homes in Red Hill a few weeks ago. I was struck by how much ethnic conflict exists between the Xhosa and the Zimbabweans. Imagine getting charged higher rents or having your homes burned down overnight, just because of your ethnic background.

Of course, the bigger picture is the story of apartheid in South Africa. Even though it officially ended in 1994, its effects are still felt throughout the country today. On surface, everything appears to be going well but in reality, many blacks and coloreds (it's politically correct to call them as such in South Africa) still face discrimination and encounter extraordinary difficulties in advancing themselves. It's difficult to obtain a good-paying job when you were denied a good education. Kids do not go to school because their families cannot afford school uniforms; if the government really wanted to have equal opportunities for all races, the rules can be simply modified to remedy the situation. Unfortunately, there appears to be little political willpower or economic incentive for the government to do so.

Amidst these conflicts and troubles, I still see hopes of reconciliation. While we were waiting for the doors of Kids Club to open. This 5 year-old kid, whom I later found out his name is Jeremiah, saw me from afar and ran toward me and gave me the biggest, warmest hug I've ever received. I didn't bring any toys or candies with me and I was quite smelly and sweaty. I have absolutely nothing to give back to him except my time. Jeremiah just wanted to come up and share his love with me (granted, I am the sharpest looking of the group...we will talk about humility at another time). I was instantly reminded how pure and unconditional the love of a child is.

I often wonder when and where during our development did we pick up the bad habit of labeling people. I don't remember it being taught in schools...but as we grow up we begin to focus on how people are different than ourselves. Male, female, Hispanic, HIV+, addict, homosexual, black, Republicans, Democrats, liberals, etc...we've all used those terms to describe others.

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18:3

Jesus told us to love each other and we all try to do that, but is it truly unconditional love? I have to confess it's not for me. I wonder how different our world would be if we would roll ourselves back to the mindset of a child and love and trust others unconditionally.

An Apology

On behalf of the entire team, I would like to offer a quick apology for not keeping up with the blog as often as we should. But 31 hours of travel is exhausting and I had aches and sores in places I didn't know existed before on my body. So here's one of the many Haiku's we written to make up for it.

Seven pairs of hands

The attitiude is "WE CAN"!

Mouths full of sand.

36 Hours and counting...

We are leaving in about 36 hours and panic finally sets in for me. I am a clinical pharmacist by training and I work with HIV patients regularly at my practice, so this trip sounded like a very good fit for me...it may be a different country but not exactly that far out of my comfort zone. I didn't really have much doubt or concerns since signing up for the trip last fall.

Fast forward to today, my bags are not packed yet, errands, loose ends at work, and the hallmark symptoms highly suggestive of an upcoming cold or upper respiratory tract infections are beginning to make me wonder what have I gotten myself into?

By sheer coincidence I was looking through some files on my computer earlier today and ran into an old presentation that I prepared a year ago about the AIDS epidemic and global health disparity, and I was instantly reminded why we are doing this trip. I would like to share some of this statistics with you:

Every day, 1,800 children under 15 are infected with HIV and 1,400 die of AIDS-related illnesses.

Infection rates in women and girls are 5 times higher than males in Africa; many women do not have the power to refuse sex or insist on condom use.

Less than 5% of children worldwide receive necessary antiretroviral drugs.

Infant deaths from AIDS-related infections can be cut in HALF with Bactrim treatment (costing pennies a day), yet only 1% of infants receive this life-saving treatment.

In 2007, 22.5 million people are living with HIV and 1.6 million died because of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. In contrast, the numbers are 1.3 million and 21,000 in North America, respectively. In South Africa specifically, 18.8% of the country's residents are infected.

The statistics are overwhelming. I would be foolish, prideful, and arrogant to think that I am going to make a difference. I have to be honest and say I wonder sometimes why bother at all? But this trip is not about me, it's about walking humbly with God and accomplishing His will.

"Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." - Isaiah 1:17


"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." - 1 Peter 4:10

So please keep our team in your prayers - for safety, understanding, and effectiveness in this mission and ministry. Pray for our work, the people that we will meet, the hearts that will be opened, the lives that will be changed...and personally that my cold will run its quick course and a speedy recovery! Now, I better get going and start packing.