No Photo for this

Words and no photos!
Monday August 31, 2009
I have on my dresser in Cape Town, a photo of my mother flanked on each side by my nephew and the son of a close family friend. It was taken on Easter Sunday, right after church at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.Everyone in the picture is smiling. Today that young man, the son of our friends is gone. He took his own life in a most, to us, unexpected way. His parents are plunged into the kind of grief that, perhaps, only other parents who have faced this can understand. To the outside word it seems that this young man had everything, but to him, life was no longer bearable and therefore not worth living. This news came just about the same time as that of the death of Ted Kennedy. As I watched the litany of Kennedy's accomplishments and so on, I could not help but contrast the two deaths, one after a live fully lived and the other, so brief, " a passing vapor" as it were. My own nephews were deeply affected but one of them encouraged the family to remember the love they shared and the love so many people have for them. Both deaths remind us to love those whom God has placed in our circle and beyond. For the young man's parents and for the extended family and friends, there is the inevitable question, why? We have no answers but yesterday in church I heard again the only answer I believe ultimately helps. It is found in Psalm 18:2, "My God is my rock in whom I take refuge"
This is true for life and for death! I pray his family finds refuge and strength in this.

Women's Rights

Women's Rights

The August 23 New York Times magazine on the rights of women is a keeper for me. "Why Women's rights Are the Cause of Our Time" is a document I will use and refer to it again and again. I am well aware as a Christian woman that the term "women's rights" causes some of my sisters in Christ problems but it should not. As much as I am for the rights of women to earn and achieve and be treated equally, I have never seen myself as a feminist, a term I find somewhat harsh. I celebrate the differences between men and women and the way we complement each other but as I travelled to many countries of the world, I took special notice of the way women were treated and concluded that women are the burden bearers of the world. I have seen more women carrying coal and wood and oversized bundles of who knows what on their heads. I have seen them pulling wheelbarrows filled with clothes and vegetables. I heard testimonies of women who served as beasts of burden and who despaired their lot in life. Yet, all of that was theory to me until I went to Cape Town to work with HIV and AIDS. Early in my time there I realized that women bear the brunt of the HIV and AIDS pandemic and for the most part, they do so because they have few rights of their own. It was and is their lack of skills and opportunity and the added stigma of a virus that invaded their lives, mostly uninvited, that moved me to start the sewing and computer program that I now run. I love the women God has placed into my life, such as Namgamso and Matseko seen above. I feel called, with others, to help them, serve them, build their self esteem and provide opportunities as God helps me. I also believe that if those women are treated equally and are respected more by men, we could see the HIV rate dramatically reduce in South Africa. The Times magazine says: "In many parts of the world, women are routinely beaten, raped or sold into prostitution. They are denied access to medical care, education and economic and political power. Changing that could change everything." I agree!

Thank you Youth For Christ

Youth For Christ!

Some of my most cherished memories are from the years I spent with Youth For Christ. I was in high school when this international Christian youth organization began its work in Trinidad. It immediately captured the hearts of many of us who were Christian teenagers who , until that time, believed serving Jesus was a bunch of rules and regulations we hated. It brought to us an excitement for our faith through Saturday night rallies filled with music, movies, Bible teaching, competition, international speakers and just fun. It both guided and challenged us to excellence. Led by Jamaican born Keith Rowe, we never would even think of missing a YFC meeting. I sang with my cousins and with Donald Ryan who has gone on to become famous for his music. Above all, we shared a fellowship, unrivalled by anything I have experienced since. During my recent visit to Trinidad it was such a joy to meet with (above photo)Herman Brown and his wife Ruth Ellen and (below photo) Keith Telesford and his wife Marilyn and Garth Thomas. We sat on my aunt's veranda and shared memory after memory. Tears filled my eyes when Garth said he prayed for me and others from YFC days twice a week. Now I will do the same. As I travelled around the world I often met other Christian leaders whose lives had also been changed through Youth For Christ. I recall sitting in the home of Dr. Billy Kim from South Korea as he talked about YFC and his leadership and we talked about different leaders we had known.Without a doubt YFC saved many of us for the cause of Christ and when we think of great leaders like Billy Graham and Leighton Ford and Billy Kim, Gerry Gallimore, we see the huge effect of this wonderful ministry. It is one for which I will always be grateful and I hope I have a chance to meet again to relish those memories with my YFC friends.

Holiday time

What a Time

Well you can tell that I have been somewhere since it has been some time since I have blogged. Yes I went with my mother (left) and sister (right) and my nephew Jordan to Trinidad, my birthplace. It had been five years since I visited and I seized at the chance to go. I enjoyed every minute of it and loved the sound and warmth of the rain which showered us day after day. It was a time for old friends, the subject of another blog, and familiar food. For all that was the same there was so much that was different. Port of Spain, the capital has changed with many improvements. There are so many new buildings and it has the feel now of a modern city. The biggest and loveliest change is the new waterfront, the centerpiece of which is the newly constructed Hyatt where the Latin American heads met in April this year. It reminds me of the magnificent waterfront we enjoy in Cape Town but in a more tranquil setting. I stayed in the home of my aunt in Woodbrook, a town that has been transformed from a bedroom community of Port of Spain to a place of businessess and restaurants. I went to a shopping mall near the last home owned by my parents to find it now is a most upscale place with merchandise seen in some of the finest shops here in the United States. I went for a ride on the water taxi that now makes the trip to the center of the island a forty minute ocean ride, instead of two hours in congested traffic. It was so good to dip in the warm Atlantic Ocean here than in the cold waters in fish Hoek where I live. Above all, it was a blessing to enjoy my mother and nephew and sister, all of whom I miss so much in Cape Town. I am so grateful for them and the blessings of my cousins and their children all of whom made it an unforgettable holiday.