Saturday, February 3, 2007

OK, I will start out be saying, this will be a lengthy blog. There has been so much that has happened is the reason for the length. Forgive me. Spread it over a couple of readings, if you must.

Today, Barbara and I are going into town to pick up a few things for the Farm and a few things for the group. This will be my first time driving by myself (no one to help me). We got up and had breakfast and got our list of things to buy. We left about 9:45am. It is about 22 K into town (about 10 miles, I think). I found it fairly easy until I got into town. Then I had to concentrate a lot. The first place we went to was closed so we had to get directions from the local people and follow them. We found the place (to fill up the propane tanks) but it took awhile. Afterwards, we head to the mall to do some mailing for Joe. We couldn't do due to restrictions on sending to a PO box. Then, we went to the store but couldn't get everything so we had to go to another store. Once we got to the store, we found everything we needed. We had to make another couple of stops....then we headed home, about 3 and ½ hours later. They seemed to be worried about us. But we made it fine. The afternoon was filled with watching the NOMADS work on their ministry skills (dramas). All of us were invited to go up to the Shikwaru camp and have dinner with a group that had arrived earlier....Dr. Blessman and his group. This group will be working a few days around the farm doing some construction work. Side Note....the men were not too happy with the supplies, tools and general working conditions and didn't feel any reluctance in expressing their feelings. I almost reminded them that they were in a 3rd world country. After dinner, we headed back down the mountain and off to bed.

Sunday......This day promises to be a lot of fun. First, most of the NOMAD boys and men plus Mishael went to a paintball field next door to the farm. I went along to take pictures. This was the first time the field had been used. We were the first ones to try it out. It was intense. The NOMADS were against the Staff. The first game I was up in a observation tower but it was surrounded by netting and I couldn't get good photos or video there. The rest of the time, I stayed down on the playing field with a yellow and white Marshal vest on to identify me as a non-player. However, it wasn't as simple as that......some of the players forgot about me and sometimes used the barrier that I was shooting from as one of their places to shoot from.....therefore, there were a lot of paintballs flying all around me. The last game, one of the paintballs struck my arm, at a glancing blow, and brought blood! I was wounded in combat! Everyone had a great time and was marked by the paintballs. Mishael is a trooper and stayed right in with the guys, hitting and getting hit. We went back in time for lunch of sandwiches and chips. The afternoon was a time of relaxing and studying. We then helped Johann trying to set up the TV for the Super Bowl. We couldn't get it to work so they decided to go up to the Shikwaru camp and use that satellite dish with Johann's card from his receiver. For dinner, we had steaks, salad and baked potatoes. It was good. Randy taught for our Sunday service and the message was good....about the Father's heart and his love for us. After service, some of the guys went to catch a little sleep before the game. I had already decided to stay up for the game, as long as it was in our base camp. However, since it was a 15 minute ride up and the length of the game, with the long halftime, and a 15 minute ride down....it would be daylight before we would get back for a little sleep......I decided not to go up and watch the Super Bowl. It was just as well as one of the cars broke down coming down the hill and it was 5:30am before they arrived back. Anyway, my team won.....YES!

Monday.....Barbara and I got up and packed our bags as we ere leaving the farm for days. Jan (pronounced yawn) and Jeni would be leading us on a ride to see a bunch of their projects (mostly orphanages and care-givers). We met together and went over our stops, prayed together and left about 10:30am. There was Jan, Jeni, Barbara, myself and Christian Wolfe. Christian is a photo/video journalist that will be going to document “One Day In The Life Of An Orphan”. He will be using photo stills and video to tell a story about the orphan problems in South Africa, and some of the stark realizations of HIV/AIDS and it's effect on the children’s lives. Our first stop was a place about 3 hours away. AND, it is in the country, bush, boonies or whatever you call the place away from the city. It is a place that feeds about 300 children, at breakfast and at lunch. The program is run by Mavis Matbabatha, a gently woman that has a heart for the children of her community. The children have breakfast and noon meal here, go to school and then go home to a house of a relative or a friend as most of their parents have died from AIDS. We arrived in time for the lunch feeding. When we arrived, the caregivers were dancing and singing. This is a happy place. The children were a joy to be around. They gave us several performances in singing and dancing. Even the caregivers blessed us with a couple of dances. It was a lot of fun. BUT, it was HOT! The meal of “pap” (pronounced POP, a mush thingy of ground corn) and a thick soup. Each child got a very large helping as this may be the only meal they receive if they don't have breakfast here. Afterwards, we went to the Chief's house and met him. His name is Chief Kgosigadi Mphahlele. We had to have his permission to be there, to stay in the village and to film the documentations. He was a very compassionate man and was very receptive to us being there. We had a good meeting with him and he took us to see the new compressor (industrial size). They need it to help dig the graves in the rocky soil. The AIDS epidemic requires a lot of new graves weekly. Jan presented the Chief with a shirt from Shikwaru (a gift to the Chief is the custom). Once we finished there, we went back to Mavis' house for dinner of beets, pap, rice, chichen and squash. It was their food and very good. Afterwards, we split up and went to separate homes for the night. Barbara and I stayed with Mavis' half sister just a couple of houses down the road. We stayed outside for about an hour waiting for the heat to dissipate in the house. Every home, from the shacks to the beautiful, have outdoor toilets....as we know outhouses! So, we went to the outhouse before bedtime. Lo and behold, it was as I remembered growing up as a child when I visited my Aunt and Uncle. So, we didn't drink a lot of liquids before retiring so we would not have to walk the 50 yards to the outhouse. The people we were staying with had shut up the house during the day and it was hot inside. When we went to bed, they came in and put a FLANNEL sheet on top of the bedspread and that was our bed. They had very little electricity with one plug in the room and no lights and the drapes were closed.. However, there was a fan. So we laid on the flannel sheet and tried to sleep. I think the dripping of our perspiration kept us awake for a long time. Barbara finally got up and opened the drapes and opened the windows but still the fan was moving hot air around. We didn't get much sleep that night.

Tuesday.....we were to meet up with Jan, Jeni and Christian at 6am to see the breakfast feeding of the orphaned children. We didn't wake up until 6 so by the time we washed up (remember....no running water) in the bathtub and air-dryed, brushed out teeth over the tub (no lavatory) and then got dressed, it was 6:45am. We dropped off our suitcases at Mavis' home and walked to the place where they fed the children. Again, the children that arrived were fed a large portion of food We got to pray with them and invited any who wanted to receive Christ to meet with us in the corner of the structure. There were 19 who did and went through the sinner's prayer and Jan made sure they understood what they were doing. Afterwards, Jan and Jeni gave them a salvation bracelet and explained each of the beads. Jan promised them a bible when he returns the next trip. After our prayer, we head back to Mavis' home to pack up and leave. The Chief arrived to see us off. That seemed kinda special. We left around 9am and headed to another project. The next project was three hours away and way up in the hills about 20 miles from any town. As we turned off the main highway to a dirt road, there was a very old man and a very old woman waiting for a ride. We offered them a ride as far as we went. We offered him a cold drink (it was HOT) and they were very happy for the ride. Once we arrived at our destination, they got out and started walking away.
I felt impressed to give my new hat to the older man. I had just bought the hat about an hour ago. He was thrilled as he was hatless. The lady that runs this community center is Clare Masinga.
She has been honored by the President of South Africa and is considered as one of the top 5 women in the Northwest Province. This community city is a place where the people can come together to learn skills, get information, have Bible studies and be a place where they can bring in their crafts for sale. She also feeds about 300 children a day. Again, the large portions and basic foods....pap and veggies. They gave us several performances of their dances and songs. We watched the children do their dances and interacted with them most of the afternoon. The adult teachers from the adjoining school also performed some of the dances.
It was great. Yours truly even got in and did a little dance with them. Of course, I made a fool of myself but they loved it. OK, again no electricity. So, we ate dinner in candlelight, had a small Bible study by candlelight and went to our rooms/chalet by candlelight. No running water BUT we had an inside toilet. We had to fill the bowl with water and then flush. We took our shower in a large pan (it was in a tiled shower area) by using a pail of hot water. But it was all inside and the chalet was nice. We had a little sleep as we slept with the windows open to have the cool air but the mosquitoes were alive and well. Plus, it rained during the night and the rain was coming in the windows.

Wednesday......Up at 6am and we had some tea and some of their basic ground corn cereal. It was similar to Cream Of Wheat but darker. It was good....Some didn't like it. We left at 8am and went to see Chief Alfred Kgoete to thank him for allowing us to visit and sleep the night there.
We visited with him for about 30 minutes and he acted a little more “Chiefly”, a little stand-offish. As is their custom, Jan gave him a gift (a shirt from Shikwaru) plus the required “donation” and it was to be slipped under the cloth on the coffee table as we left. We took a couple of photos and started back. We stopped at a crèche, basically a day care center for young ones. We went in and played al little with them and Jeni brought some hard candy and distributed it. In the 2-3 year old class, we went in and apparently they had never seen a white person and, here we are flashing photos and four big (to them) white people come in and try to interact with them. Two or three began to cry. We felt so bad. We left and took Clara back to her place and we began to travel to our next destination. Again, we travel another 3-4 hours. However, this trip was very scenic. We went up over a Pass and it was beautiful. We peaked at around 2,900 meters (a little over 9,000 feet) and the view was great. We continued on to White River, only about 20 K from the Kruger National Park. We went to the home of Nelly Nkosi where she feeds 35 children each day. These children are orphans but live with relatives or friends. Jan and Jeni also brought some cooking plates, pots and pans and assorted dishes. As I assembled the cooking plates and hooked them up to a propane tank, Jan and Jeni worked with some of the community leaders with a survey to identify the needs of the community. They do this in each one of their project to help identify the best way to help them. Barbara was sorting the gifts that we brought and then we gave them out to the children. It seemed that we gave out a lot more than
35 gifts as more children appeared. We also presented Nelly with one of the industrial-sized first aid kits that had been donated to P.E.A.C.E., Inc. But we had a good time interacting with them. Christian and I had each bought a soccer ball at one of the towns and Christian presented his to the children and they were ecstatic. We left and headed to out resting place.....the African Mission School. Before we got there, Jan detoured and wanted to show us another Orphanage (a true orphanage). This one is run by Ester Nkosi and is called the Mpunalanga Christian Centre Orphanage. She had been donated a old abandoned small military compound. She has plenty of room and big buildings that house over 100 orphans, ranging in ages 3-17. AND each of them is saved and serving the Lord. It was amazing.....they sang praise and worship songs to us and did some dancing. Four gave their testimonies and at the end, and without prompting, several of the children (as many as 5 per person) came up and prayed for us....most of them below 12 years of age. It was a blessing and very inspiring. We left there “on cloud nine” and finally went to our resting place. That is where I am now, catching up on my blog.

Please excuse the length of this blog but I wanted to document some of the incredible things that has happened to us.

Blessing,

DAD and MOM
Jerry & Barbara