4/23/07

I lost my diary today :( and my best pen. I had just calculated some of the different options of travel for the coming month. It will be expensive. I am disappointed that our young folks have seemed to ditch us. Probably ditched our extra luggage as well.

Last week was better than I hoped.
Working with Heather and Tamsin was good. Going out with them to see their work with the community orphan kids, going to pray with the mother of one of the little ones who died, going to the remotest areas where there are few helpers who come; going to Maria’s house out in the toolies – 2 little round-hovels in a compound of bare dirt, 2 10 year old boys fetching water out of a broken water pipe, Maria is not home, no adult is home – in Joburg. So we load one up and go over the 4x4 type roads to the last place in the hills before you go into Mozambique – a little church building (about 15x30) where they were practicing music. We played soccer outside and soaked in the simple beauty of very simple African life – playing with a soccer ball made of a bunch of plastic bags with a balloon tied around them- it really worked quite nice! The 10 year old boys were not Maria’s brothers, but uncles! And no adults were at home. Something said about an older man staying there – freakie. Then we went to another child’s house to deliver food parcels too. He lived in a compound with one cement block house and about 5 round-hovels. This is African extended family – one set of parents dies of AIDS and the kids are just taken care of by the aunt until she dies of AIDS. Then they go to another aunt, until finally they go to the gogo (grandmother). But these people were so alive and vibrant! We grabbed their little babies and pretended we were trading Chris for them – we all played along. We oooed and ahhhed at all the giant avacodos on the trees until they filled a plastic bag to the brim for us. Then one of the aunts who had drunk a bit too much wild pau pau juice came out dancing with Chris – hugging and kissing and spitting over all. It was hilarious and Chris was such a good sport. We topped off the week with them by going to a weekend camp they have occasionally for just the 50 choir kids. It was great fun in the swimming pool and competitive games and singing and dancing – all the good things of camp. And it was in a game park where I saw 3 rhino, some big deer of the sort that have long 3’ horns twisting like a ice cream cones up to sharp points, a lot of zebra and other deer sort of things. But the best thing is to see these kids: they are orphans, subject to abject poverty, humiliation because association with AIDS, unbelievable trauma from watching parents die - and how God is transforming them into happy, godly, disciplined, worshiping children! This is the badge of this organization's wisdom. Jesus said, "Wisdom is vindicated by her children." This is their testimony to all who might wonder if they are doing something right - "Look at our kids!" We got a chance to see some who have been in the program for many years - they are now 20-26. They are mature, responsible, lovers of God. What a powerful testimony.
I preached Sunday morning about how God is a Father to the fatherless. To some degree most of us are a bit fatherless – none of our dads really gave us all we need. Some gave nothing. It is all to degrees. But God said he is the Father to us when we are in that place of lack. And the Word also says that he is the model of all fatherhood (Eph 3), so we learn what fatherhood is from looking at our Father. The first thing: he says he will never leave us or forsake us. He says this 365 times in the Bible – one for every day of the year, and for every moment of fear or lonliness. That is the essence of fatherhood – to commit to be there. many want to have sex and make a baby, but have no intention of being there. that is not a father. Again scripture says that anyone who does not provide for his own family has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (I Tim 4)! How seriously the Lord takes this matter of fatherhood – because it is near to his heart! And finally as a Father he wants to tell us, like he told his son Jesus, “Ah, you are my son (or daughter) in whom I am wellll pleased!” He is thrilled with us every moment of the day. He cant wait till we wake in the morning to share something with us that will make our day. How often do we forget about him. But he never forgets about us – he is just waiting with bated breath. Then I asked the kids to sing a song that is their favorite – “You are my shepherd…” It was powerful.

Heather and Tamsin are amazing. They are both young unmarried women who are doing such an amazing job at developing a complex program (choir training, spiritual life training for the choir kids, working in their homes to assist in what ever way they need, feeding them, clothing them, counseling them… And besides that, they are working with another 400 orphans or vulnerable kids in a less intense way – after school programs in 8 schools 4 days a week, feeding, clothing, counseling… And many more things) in the middle of a strange land where they drive on the wrong side of the road for pete’s sake! They go to work at 8 am, often come home 7-8 pm; when Regina is around they have dinner prepared, but otherwise they dine while they are doing email and work on the computer till bed time (don’t count on their house being a single party house! We tried to watch a movie one night and people kept dribbling off to bed.). They have a great property with many buildings on it that will soon be transformed into a center – school, boarding rooms, staff and visitor rooms, etc. Clive and Di Babb are an awesome couple and will be moving from beautiful Cape Town to work on this and other projects. Kyle Showalter is probably going to help them for a few weeks after my family return to the US. Any others what to get in on some construction and orphan work this summer? This would be a great place with lots of youth around. If you are interested contact Heather Heather.Lytle@africanchildrenschoir.com or Tamsin tamsin.scurfield@africanchildrenschoir.com .

We are in Maputo today - fellowshiping with a new work starting here with Children's Cup. They are a discipleship school from Lousiana working on building a church - they already feed 200 kids daily and just started church 5 weeks ago. it is an awesome group.

Bye.