Every day at three thirty in the afternoon, I go to the field next to Ghost Town playground. It’s just around the corner from the little yellow house I have lived in this month. The field is small and seems to be a central place that most everyone in Ocean View passes through during the day. About twenty kids come running to greet me with huge smiles and screaming ‘hello!’ at the top of their lungs. I remember the first day I walked out to the field and there was no hesitation from these little ones. They just jumped right into my arms looking to love and be loved – and so, like Jesus has taught me, I let the little children come to me. Crawling all over me, knotting my hair, tickling me and all. These are the ones that I have learned from the most.
There is a little boy named Kevin who just wants to be held all day. Nothing more, nothing less. He just jumps into my arms, lays his head on my shoulder, and rests in my embrace. He yearns for the caring, comforting embrace of a motherly figure and I am blessed to be the one to give it to him. When I sit down, he comes to sit on my lap facing me and he just stares. He doesn’t speak much, so I just let him look. I was wearing sunglasses the first time he did this, and he quickly pushed them to the top of my head to see my eyes. A huge smile came across his face when he saw my blue eyes. He just stared.
Kevin and his friends here in Ocean View have a “hood” life. Their homes are, for the most part, very broken. Most parents are single and don’t have a job, so they are on government welfare. Some of these kids don’t eat much and are very boney. Drug dealers and drunkards roam the field even when we are playing on it. The corner of the street I live on is one of the popular corners for dealing whatever kind of drugs they deal around here. Countless times I have spoken with men getting off of work at the project homes in the neighborhood next to Ghost Town. They proclaim Jesus because they know we are missionaries, but they keep drinking and smoking like it’s their job. They explain how their families are falling apart but won’t admit that it’s “their bad” for trying to lead them whilst intoxicated the majority of the time. This place where kids like Kevin live in is full of distraught, blinded people. Honestly, it sometimes feels like the devil’s playground when I look around.
But these kids are thriving in ways that “safe, suburban” kids back in the states will never understand. They have a different way of viewing life and a different way of going about surviving. Their ideal future is simple and focused on their families rather than self-centered and praise-seeking.
I see these kids sharing everything they have. When I went with some kids to a field day at the South African Navy Festival, they pulled out their lunches and began eating. I watched as one boy gladly gave half of his sandwich to the boy who didn’t have one. A few minutes later, I see another boy open a fresh bag of chips, eat two or three, and then offer some to the other four boys around him. By the time he finished handing them out there weren’t any left in the bag.
Another day, I was playing on the field with the Ocean View kiddos and one of them was eating a bag of crisps or something like that. When he realized one of his little friends didn’t have food with him but was looking like he wanted some, he gave him some Rand to go buy something at Uncle Johnny’s, the shop on the corner. The boy’s face lit up. These kids don’t just get Rand from their parents like an allowance. Honestly, I’m not sure where they get it from – I don’t really want to know, haha. But the point is that they share what little they have. They don’t hold onto material things like they are selfish hoarders.
Let me contrast what I’ve seen from kids here compared to kids (even some adults) in the States. In the States, the sharing of the sandwich might have been done with a reluctant attitude and the boy would have complained later on that he was hungry because he gave half his sandwich to a friend. Fishing for compliments and grumbling about the opportunity to do something kind. In the States, the boy handing out chips would have counted the number of chips each person got and made sure he got the equal amount, if not more, because they were his, after all. That is, of course, if he felt like he could live without the entire bag. In the states, I’m not so positive that the Ocean View boy would have bought his friend a bag of crisps so eagerly. Watching the South African boys be so generous reminded me of the Acts church. The fellowship of the believers was so selfless. Scripture tells us that they “had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-45). These kids embody the fellowship of believers in the way that they generously share.
Ultimately, everything we have is not our own. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that fills it.” Everything I possess is not mine to keep and distribute how I desire. No. Everything I possess is the Lord’s. It is from the Lord, and I will do with it as HE pleases – not how I see it best fit. This is a lesson I am learning slowly but surely, and it all started with my squad mate Bridget.
Between Nepal and South Africa, Bridget sent her pack home. All she has with her for the rest of the race is her daypack and the drum she bought in Nepal. She said goodbye to her 65 liter pack that held clothes, toiletries, shoes, and anything else she could squeeze in there and said hello to a life lived out of a 24 liter daypack. She knew the Lord would provide for her, and she knew that nothing was hers to hold on to tightly in the first place.
When I arrived in South Africa, Bradley Barnes, our ministry contact kept talking about how nothing he “owns” is his. It’s all the Lord’s. His money, his car, his family, his ministry. All God’s. This man gave up his own home for the Kingdom without knowing where he was going to take his family next. Now, that home is the very one I have been living in this month. He calls it a “Kingdom House” for missionaries and Racers to live in. That struck me so hard when I heard him explaining his heart behind material possessions. I used this month to chew on this concept.
As I was chewing, my dear team mate, Juliana, and I were sitting at Muizenberg Beach speaking to this woman we had seen the previous weekend. She was asking for money to help her grandson eat. We just sat with her to chat and hear her story and share testimonies of the Lord’s goodness and provision in our lives. It was a very sunny and windy day on the beach. The sun here in South Africa is stronger than in America and the wind picks up so much dust and sand and throws it in your eyes if you aren’t careful. Juliana noticed that her eyes looked irritated and proceeded to give the woman her favorite fake Rayban sunglasses. The woman had some serious teeth issues and said she was in a lot of pain. I gave her a dose of acetaminophen but didn’t have any water to give. So Juliana gave her the water bottle she had just bought. Now, what’s significant about this is that Juliana had given the woman her water bottle the week prior. Juliana’s generous, selfless heart screamed that she understood that nothing she “owns” is hers to keep. It was never hers in the first place. “The earth is the Lord’s and everything that fills it.”
Living in tight community, both physically as we are seven in one little house and spiritually as we dig in together toward Christ, has taught me a lot about what it looks like to be selfless. I’ve had to examine my heart and ask the Lord to purify it over and over and over again this month so that I might give from a generous heart and not a reluctant one. When the Acts church saw a need in their community, they gave. When someone was sick, I bet they sacrificed some of their food to bless their neighbor who didn’t have the strength to cook. When someone didn’t have money for a donkey ride to work, I’m sure they chipped in to get them where they needed to go. When someone needed water, I am sure they gave them something to drink. When someone needed encouragement, I am positive they gave so generously and from the overflow of their heart that the encouraged one felt on top of the world and loved.
All these scenes have been playing on a reel in my mind the past few days as I have reflected on the month. The one that strikes me over and over again is the kids sharing the little that they have. They get what it’s like to have plenty to share, they get what it’s like to be in want and they desire to fill one another and love one another with generous, giving hearts. In this way, they embody the Acts church. I want to be more like little Kevin. I want to love well and give generously because, from the very beginning of time, nothing is mine to keep for myself. “The earth is the Lord’s and everything that fills it.”
In what ways do you hold material possessions to such a high place that you overlook the needs of the people God has placed right in front of you? How can you become more selfless in the way you consider giving? What can you do to bless your neighbor and fill a need they have? Nothing is yours to keep forever, so why hold so tightly to what will one day pass away?
“The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” – 1 John 2:17
