Im fresh off of a 2 week journey through South Africa. This was not my first time to the continent but my first time to South Africa. In a nutshell the trip was exciting, exhilarating, disheartening and encouraging all at the same time. The range of emotions would leave one laughing hysterically at one moment and in sobbing tears the next. Honestly, it was such an emotional conundrum that I am still processing, maybe struggling is a better word, with some of the images and what they mean to me both personally and organically.
Personally, people make everything that's anything- the right people in any environment can still make a moment memorable. I was blessed to be teamed with a great crew: Peter, Alex, Tina, Wayne, Rosetta, Anthony,Petruis, John and Pat. We were certainly a motley crew: 2 brothas, 3 Koreans, 1 Japanese, 1 Hawaiian and 2 South Africans. All of us were pastors except Rosetta and Petruis- they were our South African contacts, with Rosetta's organization being the reason we were there at all.
It was good to have a team that could carry a jovial atmosphere anywhere they were but also mature enough to express genuine heartbreak where appropriate. We walked miles on foot to deliver food to needy families, cleaned soiled bed sheets, bathed hiv patients, prayed for communities, visited schools and orphanages and even stayed the night with a Zulu family in their home. But all of this isn't why I describe this team as amazing; its because when we left any situation, this team took the mindset to learn from it and the people. We never viewed ourselves as their saviors but as learners from them. They were clear who they were and just needed a little encouragement. Or so we thought that's what they needed- we left most every situation more encouraged by them than vice versa! The Zulu people are among the worlds strongest. Their gentle temperament should not be confused with weakness, whereas their wherewithal has been long proven.
We got a great lesson on unconditional faith, perseverance, integrity and the power of hope- without these people and civilizations would crumble. They have all of the 'real' stuff it takes to survive.
So why were we there? Interesting question because on an abstract plain I haven't been able to answer that myself. I mean the obvious is that in certain areas of South Africa the poverty is so astounding that I wouldn't do it justice to describe it to you in this blog. There is no doubt that the country is in need and we went and met some of those needs- but I have yet to understand why they are in need. They have the stuff! They have the core stuff to survive, and survive the people as a whole are doing- but there must be more to life than survival! I know it looks bleak and hairy at times but the Zulu people are indeed surviving (as a people)! But what they are missing is abundance. Survival can be an individual achievement, but abundance requires inclusionary participation of others to make happen: there will be no abundance if others aren't willing to share!
I wonder if South Africa, the Zulu people in particular are among a growing community of world people at are the recipient of unfair play by other nations and countries? Those shut out of world markets and victimized by global monopolies in an attempt to control markets for future conservation. Ahhh, now we are blogging! Sure it makes some countries lavishly wealthy, but it makes others pitifully poor. I mean think about it, South Africa a nation that's three fourths surrounded by the most beautiful ocean in the world, its landscape is lavish and even lush at places. Its a diamond heaven too. In the cities their roads and and buildings look like the Europe, but the contrast is that 100 miles away I sat in a 4x4 mud room with a sick elderly woman who was too weak to shoo the flies from her face beg us for prayer before she met whatever eternal fate she believed awaited. Something clearly isn't right here. Why can't South Africa, in greater proportions make a leap from survival into abundance? Are the wealthier countries shutting them out? What about Nigeria, or Gambia, or (oooohhhh) Afghanistan? Many of these countries are poor but are strapped with enough resource not to be. What can we do to help them stand on their own feet? Westerners are so afraid that someone is a threat to our wealth. These countries dont need our wealth, they need us to let them in the game- to care that their babies are starving and that their elderly will die in mud huts enough to buy and sell with them at fair wages. Perhaps if the presidents, kings and czars of the world saw this first hand they would open up to expand the league...or maybe not.
Back to the local woman, the elderly woman, she didn't need pity- she didn't want pity. What she wanted was for someone to give a crap that she was there. Someone to validate that her life had meaning. And that, that meaning would perhaps inspire someone to give her hospice. Maybe our world stage is unfair because we have lost the value of how much all life and not just our own means to the continuum of humanity and to God. This lady didn't need a better home, (though by virtue of her being human she deserved one) but what would have helped her at that stage was to have someone present and there in the moment with her from time to time. She needed a few good people around her because as my sentiment said earlier, good people can make most any environment tolerable. Until the world changes, go be the change!
That's what I think!
t
