I will go…

I can’t even believe that last week is over! It was a crazy week of getting back into the swing of things since the week before I was with the Rolling Hills Team.

I spent a lot of time in the office preparing for Teens and Kids club this week. We talked about human trafficking.

With the World Cup coming up in June we are trying to make the kids aware of Human Trafficking and the very real possibility of it happening in their communities.

This last week, in teens club, we played a game called world market. Each teen got so many tokens and then they had to buy the different things like an education, a job, etc. I was the cashier. Al, one of the guys I do club with, was going around promising to give them that degree without them having to pay him anything. He got 12 of our teens to give him their receipts. We then informed the group that if they gave Al their receipt then they had been trafficked.

It was a fun game and a great illustration. They really seemed to understand it! We then discussed it a bit and watched a video. Over the next few months, leading up to the World Cup, we will be touching on this topic to remind them of it.

Please be praying for this. It is already an issue here in South Africa. These people come from all over the world to get these kids who have nothing to come with them to the States or the Europe or even to other parts of Africa, by promising them a free education, or a chance to meet a soccer star. And they sell them into brothels.

It’s going to be a crazy time for the us here in June while the World Cup is here. For now, we do the best we can to prepare the kids for these types of situations because they will occur. But we are educating our kids and praying against it!

The rest of the week was pretty tame except for Sunday when the Argus cycling race was here. Basically, all the roads around us close down for the whole day for this race. Lance Armstrong was here so apparently it is a pretty big deal race. I knew a few people that road in it so it was fun to watch them go by.

It was a fun relaxing weekend. Which has lead me into this crazy week ahead!

Business: I decided it was too much to try and blog three times a week. So two it is. Monday’s and Friday’s. When I feel compelled I will do a Wednesday blog about music or something random but don’t expect it.

Also, my apologies for not getting this up here sooner in the day. I was internet-less until now.

Enjoy!

If it was legal, I would type up the entire book by Christopher L. Heuertz called Simple Spirituality. But since I don’t exactly have the time to type up 152 pages and it’s not I will just give you a quote that really stood out to me.

“Unless our communities among friends who are poor are founded in personal humility, there can be no fruit. We must minister among and with the broken out of a posture of brokenness; it is the only way we will be accepted, When we realize that we have as much to learn as we have to offer, true Christlike ministry will freely flow, community will develop, and we will be transformed.”

When I first read this the voice within me said with much confidence, “YES!”

I have found, in my time here, that we Americans think an awful lot of ourselves. Often times, we come into situations and our first thought is, “This is NOT how we would do things in America.” We try to bring our “white-Western-rich-comfortable” culture and put it in place without asking any of the people if that is what they want or even if that’s what they need.

We have to come to people with an understanding not of their brokenness but of our own. We have to come to people with an eagerness to understand not what they are but who they are. We have to remember that we are fallen and our situations and life experiences do not in anyway make us better than the ones we serve.

We put others before ourselves because Christ put our salvation before His glory.

Our attitude toward the unknown should not attempt to make it fit what we do know but rather, should attempt to give it it’s own space to be known. Freely. With no judgement.

When we take on this attitude, when we allow people to just be heard, we allow the space necessary for community. Which will in turn, transform our lives.

If we neglect to have that mindset. We will miss out on SO much that God has to offer us.

Be encouraged. Be Changed. Be Free by living your life in a posture of humility. That is when true, real and authentic life will come to you.

This last week was an exciting and busy week!

First off, the church I attended while at university in Nashville, Rolling Hills, was here for the week! I got to work in Red Hill with them everyday! Mostly, I only see the kids in the middle and top camp and only the ones who come to club so it was so good to get out into the community and meet new people. The whole week we went out and talked with the men and women and did crafts with them. It is a special treat when they get to come out of their homes and do something special. It may seem small and insignificant to us but to them, it is a treasure.

The whole week was a build up to Thursday night! On that night the whole community is invited to what we call a Celebration party!

That night is an opportunity for the kids to sing the songs they learn in kids club and for the gospel message to be preached! And of course, there is a hot meal.

For me, Thursday night was a huge night! I have been working with a group of 12 girls in the community, ages 11-16, to form a choir. It can be difficult for them to commit to anything for a long term so it has been an uphill battle to get them into a weekly rehearsal schedule!

The last couple of weeks have allowed them opportunity to preform and that has boosted their confidence. But Thursday walls were broken down.

The girls sang 5 songs. Around song 4 the people of Red Hill (the women in particular) began to hoot and holler for the girls. They were asking for the girls to sing more songs! This is a huge change from the last time they girls sang in Red Hill.

After the girls were finished singing they all went straight to the container and two of them came up to me and asked if they could practice some more. Having a group of high school girls want to practice and want me to be there AND do it all in the heat is some sort of miracle that I can’t really explain!

So, I went to the container and we practiced for a while longer. When we were done singing we had a little pow-wow. We discussed commitment and the need to practice every week. All the girls were on board. So today we start practicing every week.

There are a couple of girls who are super serious about it and they are looked to as leaders in the group, so with their help, I am sure today will be a success.

Today, we are going to discuss a commitment policy and name our choir! Should be fun!  It might be too hot to sing! Today it is over 100 degrees and the skies are clear and I have felt not a single breeze!

Pray for our time together today in Red Hill and for the heat! It is suppose to be getting cooler here but it seems to only be getting hotter! I sweat, literally, while I am sitting still and only breathing!

Thanks for stopping by! And enjoy the nice cool weather States side!

I am a reader. I love all kinds of books but my favorite are the ones that deepen my thoughts and stretch me. When I left to come to South Africa I was given a stack of books to bring with me. One of which was written by Ruth Barton. The following is an excerpt from one of her books, Sacred Rhythms:

A few years ago our daughter Bethany was celebrating her fifteenth birthday. It was September of her first year in high school, and all she wanted was to have a party with fifty of her closest friends. (That was after she had gone over the guest list with a fine-toothed comb and whittled it down from seventy-five!) While it was a little daunting to think about hosting the first party of the year for fifty new high-schoolers, it was what she wanted, so our whole family rallied to the occasion. Bethany’s older sister, Charity (who was a senior at the time) corralled some of her friends to organize and do the judging for a karaoke competition. Very cool. I fixed and served the food, My husband, Chris, patrolled the premises to make sure visitors carrying unwanted substances didn’t find their way to the party. Younger sister Haley just tried to stay out of the way.

At one point in the evening, I became alert to the fact that something important was going on, something that was connected with the deepest longings of my heart. As kids were going through the food line fixing their hamburgers and hot dogs, they were all very polite, but there was one young man whose expression of appreciation was so genuine that I stopped what I was doing and paid attention. He said, “Thanks for letting us do this, Mrs. Barton. This is so much fun!”

I looked up from serving, met his eyes and said, “You’re welcome. We really enjoy having you!”

He paused, mid-ketchup, returned my gaze and said with incredulity, “Really?” as though he was completely unaccustomed to being enjoyed.

The young man’s unguarded response combined disbelief and wonderment so sweetly that I was flooded with awareness and suddenly saw my life in a way I had never seen it before. Something inside me stood at attention and said, This is my life. This is what it’s like to be all the way here now rather than always longing for something else. This is my life as it is meant to be lived in God.

That moment passed as quickly as it came, one of many that made it a delightful evening. Our whole family had banded together to do something special for one of us, and it felt good. When it was all over, we collapsed in our family room, utterly exhausted, and reflected on the evening. We laughed about the karaoke contest and commented on who could sing and who couldn’t. We took a leisurely look at the gifts Bethany had received. We talked about what a good time everyone seemed to have and how polite and appreciative they had been. And the thought came anew: This is my best self. This is who I want to be more and more, by God’s grace. These are the moments I will remember on my deathbed and say, “That was what I was meant for.”

Then it ambushed me–my longing, that is. A prayer welled up from the depths of my being, a prayer so full of desire that it was barely articulate: “O God, give me more moments like this–moments when I am fully present to you and to others in love. Moments when I am connected with what is purest and most authentic within me and able to respond to your presence in that place. I want to live my life in such a way that there is more of this!”

I wrote some of my thoughts down about this when I read it the first month that I was here:

I wrote “best self” on my wrist to remind me as I am going through my day to reflect on it. I have been trying to process that one for a few days now. My best self. Reflecting on Ruth’s desire for her best self I find myself in her boat a bit. One moment in particular. I was sitting on a bench at kids club with some other LSE’s and a little girl came up to me and just say on my lap. She eventually put her arms around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder. What was strange about this was that ever other kid who came up to me had a million questions. But she was content just to be help. It didn’t matter who I was or where I came from. At one point she turned around and took my wrist. She had noticed the writing. She looked at it a minute and then looked up at me and said, “best self.” Then she put her arms back around my neck and was once again content to just be held.

I’ve been thinking about that moment a lot. You see, when I first started to think about my best self I was thinking more about my talents and how they could be best used to create my best self. but I’m beginning to realize that it’s more abut the attitude in the moment than the flash and glam of your talents. Being your best self means giving yourself fully to the moment and the people with you at that moments. It’s about seeing everyone as a child of God; created in His image. No matter the life they came from or the choices they make. So no matter where I end up, as long as I am doing those things, I will be my best self. No questions.

I find that everyday I am more and more at peace with my life. Nothing feels much better than being exactly where you are suppose to be exactly when you are suppose to be there.

I am more and more aware that in order to serve others you have to put your own interests aside and be whatever it is that people need you to be. If it’s a cleaner you clean, if it’s a listener you listen, if it’s a doer you do.

My challenge to you is to be fully present in every moment because if you aren’t you will miss your life. And what fun is that?

I do not like Country music. I know. I grew up in Tennessee. I went to university in Nashville. But I do not like country music. let alone pop-country. But for some reason I can’t get Taylor Swift out of my head.

Here’s the thing. She’s a good songwriter. A great one in fact. And her Fearless album went Platinum and had 6 number 1 singles on it. It even won a the Grammy for Best Album of the Year which is the highest honor at the Grammy’s. So it’s got some weight.

I work mostly with Teens here. So the conversations I have with a lot of them have to do with relationships. All they want is to have a boyfriend. These kids come from extremely broken homes where they aren’t showed that they are loved or accepted. And that is the one thing we, as humans, crave the most.

I find myself listening to this one song by Taylor wishing I could share it with the youth and they would listen. But it’s a country song and I am in Africa so they aren’t going to listen to it. I guess I could always rewrite the track or something. We shall see. Anyway, the song is called Fifteen. Here are the lyrics:

You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors

It’s the morning of your very first day

You say “Hi” to your friends you ain’t seen in a while

Try and stay out of everybody’s way

It’s your freshman year and you’re gonna be here

For the next four years in this town

Hoping one of those senior boys will wink at you and say

“You know I haven’t seen you around, before”

’cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you

You’re gonna believe them

And when you’re fifteen

Feeling like there nothing to figure out

Well count to ten, take it in

This is life before you know who you’re gonna be

Fifteen

You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail

And soon enough you’re best friends

Laughing at the other girls who think they’re so cool

We’ll be out of here as soon as we can

And then you’re on your very first date and hes got a car

And you’re feeling like flying

And you’re mommas waiting up and you think hes the one

And you’re dancing round your room when the night ends

When the night ends

’cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you

You’re gonna believe them

When you’re fifteen and your first kiss

Makes your head spin round but

In your life you’ll do things greater than dating the boy of the football team

But I didn’t know it at fifteen

When all you wanted was to be wanted

Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now

Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday

But I realized some bigger dreams of mine

And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy

Who changed his mind and we both cried

’cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you

You’re gonna believe them

And when you’re fifteen, don’t forget to look before you fall

Ive found that time can heal most anything

And you just might find who you’re supposed to be

I didn’t know who I was supposed to be at fifteen

Here’s a link to the music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb-K2tXWK4w

I know this is probably not what you were expecting from me when I said Wednesday would be music day. But that’s what has been on my mind lately so I thought I would share.

So I falied. I said I was going to write 7 blogs in a row and I didn’t. But God has mercy and I am hoping you will too.

I am just trying to get into a habit that fits my life here and seeing as everyday looks different I can never quite figure that out. So I am going to attempt another way of doing this.

Monday’s will be update day

Wednesday’s will be music day

Friday will be Quote day.

Monday is self-explanatory but let me talk a bit about the other days.

Music is a HUGE part of my life and a huge part of the lives of the people here. Most moments in my life I can’t express in words but I can find a song that conveys the exact sentiment and emotion. So Wednesday’s I will do just that. We will see how that works out.

I am an avid reader of deep thought books. I have a whole collection of them here with me that have given me some deep insight into what it looks like to live a radical life for Jesus, specifically, with the poor. So I will pass on what has been passed on to me and add some of my own thoughts on the subject.

Most of the time I just don’t know what to write here because there is so much going on but hopefully this will keep me on track.

For now I will tell you about last Friday nights youth gathering. But to tell that story I must give some back story.

His name is Christian and he is 14 years old. He lives in Capricorn and comes to youth and church on Sunday’s with an attitude like his parents are making him come. But, ironically enough, his parents have never stepped foot inside the church. They are both drug addicts.

Though most of the kids we work with are in similar situations they seem to handle it all better. He comes and disturbs youth almost every week. There have been a couple incidents with him getting into fights and being pretty nasty to some of the girls in youth.

Yet he keeps coming whenever the doors are open. We have been praying for him fervently. He has so much potential but doesn’t know it because no one at home tells him.

The other thing you should know pertains to the youth as a whole. We have a lot of teens who have made decisions to follow Christ but they are still babies and don’t know how to do that.

So we have been focusing on building relationships and trying to get them to understand who Jesus was as a man and what that means for us here. So Friday we were focusing on Intentional Jesus.

We played a game that we thought was going to last basically the whole evening and the first team was done in 30 minutes. And of course, because this is Africa and God always has something bigger in mind, we had no plan B.

After the game Melanie wrapped it all up and handed it over to Shagmie who after a while paused looked them all in the eyes and said, “I don’t think you get what Jesus did for you.”

And that is when the night took on a whole new direction. Shagmie went into an in depth explanation of the Crucifixion and every single eye in the place was focused on him. They drank in every word.

It was like for the first time they really understood the suffering that Jesus went through and that it was all because He loved us.

That night walls were broken down. It was like something finally clicked. 7 girls accepted Christ that night. I had the privilege of counseling 3 of the girls. When I had finished talking and praying with the girls I looked up and everyone was crying and praying and encouraging one another. The leaders were praying with the youth and friends were praying together. It was truly a sight to see. God was doing big things in the lives of these kids that night.

So back to Christian. He was sitting in the front row for the entire thing. When Shagmie asked those to come forward who needed prayer he started to stand up and then went back to his seat. But Shagmie took his hand and pulled him up and started speaking truth into his like. At first Christian was hard and acting like he didn’t care but then Shagmie told him how much we all love him and pray for him and want what’s best for him. Christian started crying and you could see that he is just a hurt young man trying to make sense of the situation he is in.

When Shagmie started praying for Christian I looked over at one of the girls he had been tormenting. Her hands were outstretched toward Christian and she was praying fervently for him.

Needless to say, the Spirit moved like crazy that night and so many walls were broken down.

Sunday when they all came to church you could feel the difference. They were ready to get down to business. Christian showed up early and in a full suit. It even had a little pocket scarf!

I wish I could convey to you what that night was really like but I hope that this somehow gives you a glimpse into that night.

As for this coming week I am in Red Hill all week because the Rolling Hills team is here. Rolling HIlls Community Church is from Nashville, TN and it is where I went to church while I was at Belmont. It has been great to see some of my friends from Nashville. I am stoked to do ministry with them this week.

With the new format of this blog I will let you know all about our week of ministry next Monday!

Thanks so much for all the prayer and support! It means the world to me! You are a part of what God is doing here in South Africa!

(WARNING! This may be a bit graphic for some.)

In October, a taxi war took place and a man was shot and killed in Capricorn.

Last November we were driving home from Capricorn when we came to a rode block. There was a body lying in the middle of the median. A 20 year old female had been hit and killed. She was the big sister to two of our club kids.

In December, right before Christmas, a 10 year old boy from Masi drowned in a pond across from his Township. He was with a few other boys and they were all jumping in and his feet got stuck in the mud. It was late. Too late for them to be out on their own. The other boys jumped in and tried to dig and pull him out but they couldn’t. By the time the authorities got there it was too late. He was one of our boys in kids club at Masi.

Kumbi was an example of what you could make out of your life while living with HIV/AIDS. She was on her ARV’s for a long time and lived in Masi. She had her own purse business, thanks to the help from Living Way. Last June she had to go back into the hospital because she had stopped taking her ARV’s. The reason she stopped was because she went to a church service where the pastor prayed over her and told her that if she really believed God would heal her then she would stop taking the medicine. She spent 4 months in the Health Care Center at Living Hope. Finally, her family took her back to the Eastern Cape, where the rest of her family is. She died there in late December.

Catherine’s mother is a prostitute and a drug addict. She is one of our teen club kids in Capricorn. She has a younger and older sister. Her mother has put her older sister on drugs so she can prostitute her to get more money for drugs.

At every traffic light I drive by there are at least 3 men standing there begging for food.

In Red Hill a guy in the community climbed up an electrical pole to fix the electricity since no one was coming out to do it. His foot slipped and he electrocuted himself. It took 5 hours for the ambulance to show up and take his body down from the pole.

These are only a handful of the events of the last few months. They aren’t exactly bright and shining stories but they are the reality. And the reason I tell you them is because when you understand the reality that we live in here it makes the triumphs in people’s lives that much grander.

Death is a common thing in the lives of these people. Tragedy is expected. So when they stand up in church for the first time to speak about the love of Jesus and the amazing things He is doing in their lives it’s something to be celebrated to the tenth degree.

When a 15 year old decides to come to church and be involved in ministry they do so in spite of the home life they come from.

There’s a song out right now by Natalie Grant called Our Hope Endures

I have been listening to this song a lot in the last few weeks. I feel like it was written for the people that I serve.

Here are the lyrics:

You would think only so much can go wrong

Calamity only strikes once

You assume that this one has suffered her share

So life will be kinder from here

Oh, but sometimes the sun stays hidden for years

Sometimes the sky rains night after night

When will it clear

But our hope endures the worst of conditions

It’s more that our optimism let the earth quake

Our hope is unchanged

How do we comprehend peace within pain

Or joy at a good man’s wake

So walk a mile with the woman whose body is torn

With illness but she marches on

Emanuel God is with us

Elshaddi all sufficient

We never walk alone and this is our hope

My hope is that in reading this you will get a better reality of what is really going on here.  I didn’t write this blog to make you worry about my safety. I didn’t write this blog to make you feel guilty. I wrote this blog to make you aware of the stark reality that I live in. That the people of South Africa live in.

My hope is that now, when I share triumphs and joys, your celebration will be heightened because you now know the true depth of tragedy that is in our midst.

1 Peter 1:3-9

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

So I missed yesterday. But it was Sunday. And Valentine’s Day. So please forgive me!

Today’s story is short but very sweet! It is about a little girl named Mikela.

And it only happened yesterday.

I lead worship at Capricorn Church which is a plant from King of Kings. Some Sunday mornings we give people the opportunity to testify. That is, to tell what God is doing in their lives.

On any given Sunday morning I have to be there about an hour before the service starts. Shagmie, the youth pastor, always comes with to help out. So I am sitting at the keyboard doing a sound check and Shagmie is behind the sound board mixing it together when Mikela walks up to Shagmie, asks him a question and then walks away.

Of course, I was too busy making sure things were in order to really take note of the situation. It’s not uncommon for people to come up to Shagmie and ask him a question. So I didn’t think much of it.

The service starts and we go through our first three worship songs. There are announcements and prayer. Then Shagmie comes to the front and says, “A little girl came up to me this morning and said she wanted to sing for Jesus so we are going to let her. Mikela, will you come up here please?”

Mikela made her way to the front of the room. She was all smiles. She took the mic from Shagmie and began to sing. Mikela is 9 years old.

This child, risked it for Jesus. She didn’t know what her friends were going to think. She didn’t even wait for the opportunity to be offered. She just knew she needed to sing for Jesus and she asked if she could.

The whole place was moved by her bravery in coming up and singing, not for the church, but for Jesus.

“From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.” Psalm 8:2

Today’s tale includes the stories of Mzo, Connie and Red Hill.

Mzo, (pronounced mmm-z-oh) is my team leader for Red Hill. Connie is 13 and lives in Red Hill. Red Hill is a community that is split up into three “camps.” Top Camp, Middle Camp and Bottom Camp. Creative, huh?

Let’s start with Red Hill.

Bottom Camp has mostly foreigners or refugees living in it. Middle Camp is where the Khosa’s live and Top Camp is where the coloreds live (and no, the word colored doesn’t mean the same thing here as it does in the States). It is a unique community because most of the people who live in it have chosen to live there. They move from the Eastern Cape or Masi to be in Red Hill for many reasons. One, it is a smaller community. Two, there is unity among the people there. Three, it has the feel like you are out of the city and in a rural area.

The problem with the community is that there is no school in the area so the kids get bussed to two different schools. Either in Ocean View, which is a predominantly colored community, or to Masi which is a Black, or Khosa, community. The kids have to walk to the bottom of the mountain to even get on the bus but they do it every day in order to get to school.

Now, let’s talk about Mzo.

Mzo is the Life Skills Educator for Red Hill. He, along with Al and myself, work with the kids and the youth every afternoon. The kids see Mzo coming and they run at him yelling his name.

Mzo loves the kids in Red Hill so much that he is in the process of moving out of Masi to Red Hill so he can be more accessible to the kids. But how he became an LSE is another story entirely.

Mzo’s uncle was the Pastor at Masi Baptist Church, a church plant out of King of Kings. His name was Pastor Philip. When it came time to appoint a Pastor it made perfect sense to offer him the position. Mzo came to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape to be closer to his uncle and to be under his leadership.

Under Pastor Philip’s leadership MBC grew in numbers and, more importantly, depth. Mzo had just moved to Cape Town and was there for only a few short weeks when his Uncle was killed.

There was a small group meeting in the sanctuary of the church. Pastor Philip had just stopped by to see how things were going. He was sitting at the back observing the group when a man came in off the streets and starting shooting. Pastor Philip was the only one shot.

Because of the way the church is situated no one knew that Pastor Philip had been shot. They just heard the gun fire and ran. When Mzo came to look for his Uncle he found him dead.

It would have been easy for Mzo to pack up and head back to the Eastern Cape where the rest of his family is. It would have been easy for Mzo to be bitter and angry. But even after the short time he had with his uncle he knew that that is not what he would have wanted and more importantly it was not what God would have wanted.

So Mzo began to invest in the community around him. He showed love in the face of great sorrow, mercy in the face of great tragedy and compassion in the face of hatred.

Living Hope and King of Kings and MBC are all connected. So it wasn’t hard for Living Hope to find Mzo and offer him a position as an LSE.

For the first couple of years with Living Hope Mzo worked in Masi when, finally, an opportunity opened up for him to work in Red Hill. He knew God was calling him to that community but was waiting on God’s timing to start.

For the last year Mzo has been pouring into the lives of the kids. The community loves and respects him. He is a leader among them all, believer and non-believer. He has a pure motive and an authentic heart and it shows.

Mzo would do anything for these kids.

Enter Connie.

Connie is in Grade 7 at Marine Primary in Ocean View. She is sweet and kind and helpful and grateful for all that she has (which isn’t much). Connie has lived in Red Hill all her life. It is her home. Every morning she gets up, gets ready for school, walks down the mountain, and gets on the bus. Or at least, she use to.

New school years start in January around here. So last month, the new Grade 1’s started school for the very first time. On that first day of school they all got up and walked down the mountain and when they loaded up the school buses they realized they didn’t have enough seats. 35 children were left behind and told to go home because there was no room for them. Connie was on of them.

The school board says they don’t have enough money to get these children to school so they will either have to figure a way to get there themselves or not go. This isn’t like Suburban America where everyone has a car and everyone can drive and you can make a carpool rotation and that takes care of the problem.

For the past few weeks people have been volunteering to carpool the kids to school but it’s not a system that can be sustained for the entire year. These kids are missing out on their schooling simply because it is too far to walk and no one will take them there.

The money that had been given for these kids to get to school has sense run out. So last week, none of them went to school. The kids want to go to school so badly that even though they don’t know if there will be a car for them they get up, get ready and walk down the mountain just to in case.

So, now the stories collide.

Last night Mzo, Al and I helped put on a fundraiser. It was all about having the kids do something for their community. We practiced and practiced and practiced! These kids wanted to help out the community. We put on a show of music and dance. Mzo’s gum boot boys did their dances and the wee little ones sang their hearts out. And my 12 girl choir made their debut and Connie is in my choir.

If anything it was a chance for these kids to get out of Red Hill and it taught them not to stand by and let things happen to them but to take action and change your circumstance.

I could tell you that because of the fundraiser they will now have transport for the rest of the year. But that’s not the case. We raised enough to get the kids to school for the next week. Which we are thankful for! That’s one more week of school that they would have not had. But then what?

It costs about 3,000 Rand a week to bus these kids to school.$430 a week.$12.00 per kid per week.

What if it were your kids? What if they couldn’t get to school? What would you do then?

Today’s story is about a girl named Melanie. She is 15. When you first meet her she seems younger only because of her petiteness. But once you talk to her you realize the maturity she carries with her. Maturity far beyond her 15 years.

Unlike most of the teens who come to our youth, Melanie would seemingly fit right in with the Western American youth group. She drinks up every word that is spoken and is a leader among her peers.

When you work with youth who come from troubled homes you are constantly on the lookout for “signs”. Are they acting out? Are they being clingy? Has there been a drastic change in their personality? Are their grades suffering?

But with Melanie there are no signs. On Sunday’s she is always in the front row with her borrowed Bible and her readiness to Worship and take in every word. She has a smile on her face and even welcomes the newcomers to church.

One Sunday Melanie came to church and sat on the front row and instead of singing her heart out during worship she sat with her head in her hands and cried.

Her mother had started drinking again. She had been doing really well for a few months but this weekend had been like the weekends Melanie thought were long gone. Melanie, with her gentle-spirit, was deeply saddened. Things had been getting better and now all the progress was lost.

Melanie lives with are her mother and older sister (who is never home and only comes home when she needs something). When Melanie’s mother drinks she leaves the house and usually doesn’t come home for a few days.

So Melanie had spent the weekend at home. Alone. In a dangerous neighborhood. Scared for her mother and scared for herself.

For most people who have been disappointed by their parents it makes you angry and bitter and hard. But for Melanie, though it has made her tough, it has not made her hard.

When the new school year started Melanie didn’t have any of the books she needed for school because her mom wouldn’t get them for her. She needed the money to buy alcohol.

Though Melanie puts up a smile everywhere she goes she is deeply wounded by the choices her mother is making.

Not only does Melanie come to youth but she also comes to the Teen Club every week.

We give out sandwiches at the end of club everyday. Melanie sat to the side and cherished her sandwich as she ate it. We always have some left over and she kept eyeing the basket of bread. Clearly, her mother had not only refused to give her money for school supplies.

Seeing the hunger in Melanie’s eyes someone approached her and asked her if she wanted to take some of it home with her. Her eyes got really big and she just nodded.

As the person brought the food over to Melanie to take home for dinner she looked Melanie in the eyes and said, “Do you know how much I love you and how great you are?” Melanie began to cry and through tears said, “I wish you were my mom.”

What convicts my about Melanie’s story is that even in the midst of her suffering and poverty she continues to cling to God because she knows, even at 15, that He is the only one that will sustain her.

A faith like hers is rare in the world she comes from. When other teens, who are going through similar situations with their parents, are choosing to drink and drug their pain away, Melanie chooses to stand before God, with hands lifted high, and cry out to her Creator and Father.

She radiates the hope of Jesus.

And what’s far more brave of her is that she doesn’t cover up her pain. She shares it so that people can see that even through her circumstances she still chooses to praise God. She reminds me of Job.

It’s hard to stand by and not want to do everything you can to get her out of that environment but the stark reality is that she is one of thousands who are in home situations like this.

What I can do for Melanie is love her the way Jesus would want me to. I can help her get her school supplies and tell her how much she is loved.

I am encouraged because I know others who have beaten the statistics of their generation and I believe that Melanie will do the same.

Her faith is raw and honest and true. It’s the kind of faith you expect in an 80 year old who has been following Christ since childhood.

Yet she is only 15 and has so much life left to live.

As we go throughout our day, in the comforts of our homes and families, let’s pray for  Melanie and the thousands of children that she represents.