Nothing to Lose

Nothing to Lose

My goodness, I recently wrote a blog with this same title about the attitudes of young people and HIV and AIDS. This time, it is the theme of a play is about a tormented train driver who killed a woman and her baby when the woman threw herself in front of his train. The drama is based on a true event in Cape Town. The play, "The Train Driver" is written by world famous South Africa playwright Athol Fugard and it was my privilege to sit next to him when I went to see this show. Already I had seen two of his plays including the Tony Award winning, Sizwe Banzi that dramatized the pain and sometimes the dilemmas caused because of the apartheid pass laws. Because he is genius talent, Fugard tells the story from the point of view of the white train driver. He says he abandoned the effort to get inside the head and heart of the woman after much effort and focused on the train driver. His train driver is haunted by the eyes of the dead woman he killed and unable to ignore his pain at what she had done to his life, he set off to find her and the play revolves around the conversation he has with the grave digger in the cemetery for people like the dead woman who are "the nameless ones." I sat enthralled at the inner dialogue he has, with the grave digger as the backdrop. Eventually he moves from cursing the woman who had so changed his life, to understanding why she did what she did. He says to her in the cemetery, "I don't know what it is like to live without hope, because you did, didn't you, that is why you did what you did, because you didn't believe anymore good things was going to happen to you and your baby." The world of the train driver is so different to those of the people whose shacks his train alternately transports and then rushes by every day. I often tell people that there are many South Africas. While that is true to some extent in other parts of the world, here, to me, it is even more pronounced and there are communities that live completely outside the world of the other, to the detriment of all. I so appreciate the arts and culture here that tackle the

chasm that exists culturally and economically between those who have and the poorest of the poor and am so thankful to work alongside ministries that are about hope. Our work here in South Africa is about hope-to women who live with HIV and AIDS, and I have known of some who were close to taking their lives. Now we are , for Christians, in the season of all seasons that bring hope, Easter! I love this time of the year and what it means to me and those without hope.

Teaching English to French Refugees

There is nothing I enjoy more than helping with other like-minded ministries and I have written about my respect for the work a local organization, African Renewal does with refugees. When asked to help I agreed to teach basic writing to a French speaking group of students. They are fairly well educated and have great ambition for their lives in South Africa. Working with them is delightful! My high school and college French comes back in bits and pieces and their English is about as good as my French but we together have so much fun. I enlisted my French speaking friend Brigitte to help me when I could not explain in clear enough English the difference between "to rent" and "to let." I am so focused on teaching them principles and structure but they have more interest in what expressions mean. When you say "I come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo," can you also say I come from Retreat or is it better, as I told them to say, "I live in Retreat." Of course here, when people ask where I live I have readily adopted the local expression and I say, "I stay in Fish Hoek." So today, without any real learning on this matter, (and how I envy those of you who have taught English as a second language, " we first talked about building a house and the way we arrange the rooms before we moved ahead to the order we must have when we write. By the end of the lesson they understoood something of what I had to say. We cheered each other on and come graduation time we will see how well I did.

Blankets of love

Blankets of love
This morning our sewing teacher Rachel delivered forty blankets for newborns that she had made with Evangeline graduate Doreen Bulelwa, to the treasurer, Dr. Sandy Haegert and the secretary Kathleen Beukes of the False Bay Hospital Association. this is the first order of what we hope will be many more to come. There are so many stories in this one. We begin last November when Penny Day from the Next Chapter Church in Kentucky came as a one week volunteer to Living Hope and asked if she could help with the sewing. Penny came with an armful of some of the most beautiful baby blankets I have ever seen and, in a few hours, taught the women how to make them. they loved it. I saw as well a business opportunity for sometime but when I spoke about the blankets in the Tuesday afternoon prayer meeting I attend, Sandy immediately said she was interested to purchase the blankets from the women rather than the stores. Sandy, not coincidentally is the woman whose wooden buttons so excited me, they are now a trademark feature of the animal print tote bags we sell. Soon after that I was walking downtown Fish Hoek when I heard my name called. It was Doreen and she wanted to be sure I knew she was interested in sewing blankets so I gave her name to Rachel. And this all brought us to today with a new enterprise started with the women from Evangeline Ministries. We at Em give a skill and a tool and then we open a door. God sends people like Penny and it all comes together for the good of the women here. These blankets are part of a free package of baby goods and foods given to mothers of newborns here who are so poor and have nothing with which to care for their babies. In that package the False Bay team also want to include baby jump suits and our teachers and graduates will also make those.Each packet costs about US25 and we at EM will see just how we can help even more. Penny told the women the blankets showed how much they are wrapped in God's love which is exactly what we want those mothers to know and what these women in EM know because of our work here.

The stadium gets a test!

Monday March 22
This was a public holiday to mark Human Rights Day here in South Africa. It was also the day the new Green Point Football (soccer) stadium got a blessed test as more than 50,000 people almost filled the arena to pray for the city. I smiled from the time I got there to my departure about four three hours later when I finally located my car. With my friend I sat in row number four, a forty dollar seat that will probably sell for ten times as much since we had a close up view of the grass field. The facility is huge and unadorned, but has a comfy feel to it. Today it was perfect as I looked up at the soft blue sky that circled the impressive retractable clear roof designed for use if the Cape Town weather proves contrary during one of the World Cup games. Since this was another readiness test, we were overrun with police and security and all manner of officials but there was nothing heavy handed about it at all . Unfairly perhaps I compared it to last years inauguration of our President and the stifling security we happily endured. Every one was at their friendliest. We had about six enquiries to help us find our place and when at the end, I was lost because I exited at the wrong entrance, the police, who did not seem familiar with the place, walked with my friend, and we chatted all the way until at last we came to the car. It was a great place to see friends in person and on the giant screens, to pray for the city and South Africa and to be inspired by featured speaker, Angus Buchanan who told us that "this is a time of opportunity for South Africa." It was refreshing to hear him shout his love for his country. "Jesus is smiling on South Africa." he said as he urged all of us to "start speaking life and not death to South Africa."

What else Am I doing!

Those plastic balls
Yes our creche at church has one of those turtle shaped plastic ball containers that you see at small family friendly stores and the toddlers love them. Once they come in the room they head straight for those toys and all we have to do is make sure they do not kill each other with them. Or at least that is what I thought until recently. So I signed up for toddler duty in what truthfully was a self righteous way. I did not want to be a foreign spectator at church. I wanted to help and yes I believed they needed my help and how impressed they wold all be that I would help. But what started out as just a mostly self-righteous gesture has become a lesson in love for me. From just showing up, I was now asked to attend training and on Saturday morning at that! I gave in and then I had to sign clearance papers to show I was fit to help. I bristled at that but could find no real reason not to comply with the requirements. Next came Sunday school training. Now we we asked to teach those unruly kids about Gods love for them. Even more we were required to clean our classroom and that included wiping down each one of these balls-maybe 200 or more- to clean them. I did not sign up for this but again I could find no real reason not to continue. Well the last Sunday I had worked we had one child and maybe I was not sure I wanted to see any more. But then our children's worker, not the best diplomat, told us we should come at 9 to pray and then she gave us a load of work to study and prepare to teach the children. We were asked to read and pray over the Bible verses and something changed in my heart. I realized I had not even ever prayed for the kids and did not much care about them beyond the 20 minutes or so we had them. But as I prayed for them my heart began to change. So yes, I went early enough to our classroom and as I cleaned those colored toys and the crib and so on,I prayed for them and for me. My goodness, eight kids showed up and they were as noisy and crazy as you ever could find. Some cried since this was their first time but we managed, and even had a small window to teach them that God made their hands and feet. When it was done I was exhausted but happy to have this incredible opportunity to touch the lives of children even for a short time. God has plans for them and they are starting to learn this and it is not to early for them and not too late for me!

A place for refugees

A chance to Teach and Make a Difference
I am now teaching English to a class of French refugees from across Africa. I love it. It helps to satisfy the frustrated sometime journalist I still am who is now helping women learn to sew and acquire basic computer skills. What I appreciate even more about this assignment is that it allows me to share in the work of another effective ministry here, African Renewal , which helps refugees get started on their new life in South Africa. The world has heard much about the treatment of refugees or, as they are described, foreigners, here in South Africa. I recently attended a lecture in which South Africa was described as a place with the most intolerance to outsiders in the world. That is probably debatable but truthfully there is a lot of tension around the issue here. Many foreigners have been killed and thousands more live in makeshift shelters, to afraid to return to the townships where the overwhelming majority live. African Renewal offers a very different picture of the way refugees are treated in the Western Cape. Yes it is a Christian organization of compassion and empowerment for refugees and I am pleased to play just a small part. The blessings are many and one delightful benefit is that I must now dig deep to remember whatever college French I learned so long ago!