Things were a bit hairy for a while. We had thought we were coming to Nelspruit in order to grab onto the vision for children’s villages, so we would be viewing potential locations (these areas are not develpoed, still in dream phase, but the land is already lined up). The plan was for Nessa to spend one week in the Nelspruit area, 3 days with Iris ministries, 2 days with Lynn Laubscher (the brains behind the children’s villages). By Saturday we still hadn’t seen the village sites.
It was Saturday when we found out that Revolution was coming to Nelspruit with the intention of visiting the villages and getting footage of Lynn sharing about these sites, and prospective use. Hmmm. Nessa raised a collective eyebrow. What is going on here, we all wondered. God what are you trying to do here?
When we first were told about this “mission” it sounded as though we’d be living right next to herds of zebra and wildebeast. When we got dropped off in Backdoor (yes, that’s the name of the town) on the top of a bitter cold mountain at an abandoned house called “Betty’s house,” it was slightly less than we expected. Our imaginations had gone wild with the romantics of what that week was going to look like, and we ended up in a house with knocked out windows, no running water, and no electricity.
On top of that, when we finally met Lynn on Thursday, we were prepared to visit the villages, she was preparing us for painting walls at a day care center. We stopped at a hardware store to pick up supplies for painting and for constructing a porch off the back of the day care. This endeavor was also part of Lynn’s vision. I’ll explain…
The Laubscher’s have scouts who seek out people who are already serving others. these people are disadvantaged themselves, but they are doing the best they can under the circumstances. The day care we set to work at was a woman named Ella’s house. She started a day care on her own, because there were so many children left alone during the day, as their parents went to work in the city. By the time Lynn found her, she was taking in over 100 kids a day, into her small one bedroom home. The Laubscher’s started giving her a hand up (not a hand out). They built 2 additions for an infant room, and a preschool room, and one deck (porch). We were there to build the second porch, and repaint the preschool room. (As we’ve done with a cute African motif mural!)
(Back to the story) Up until Thursday, we had been going to hospitals to pray for the patients, speaking in church, helping with the feeding program in Backdoor. When we were picked up on Thursday, we were told we’d be helping the new team from Vanguard University (Costa Mesa, CA… also my brother’s old stomping grounds) do work on the day care. At that point we were told we’d see the village sites on Friday. Friday came, and we were picked up by Michael, Lynn’s husband. She needed rest, and so we were dropped off at the day care to do more work (in our nice clothes this time). Was this what we had come to Nelspruit for? Nessa was getting a little unnerved, especially by Saturday when we heard about Revolution’s plans to stay with the Laubscher’s and visit the sites over the weekend.
So we sat at a coffee shop in the mall and vented for about 15 minutes. Then we collected ourselves, handed it all over to God, and decided that we wouldn’t do anything rash. At that point I didn’t have a clue what God was doing (but I’ve agreed to be a student of life, so I was bound to learn something.)
Am I learning to get rid of my expectations? Patience? Being happy for others? Trust? Hope? I’m taking the class for credit, so bring it on.
On Sunday morning, Scott shared in front of the church that the people here brought him joy, despite his tiredness. I was thinking the same thing, except mine had to do more with a lack of faith that God knows what He’s doing with all this. Pastor Suprise (from “Always Enough” by the Bakers) got up and told his church about the conditions we were living in (most of them probably live that way every day), and asked them if they could help us by bringing us water and sweet potatos. That afternoon we received 4-5 gallon containers of flushable water.
Later that night after we had made dinner, a couple knocked on the door. Their names were John and Dawn, and they came to offer us a new living situation down the mountain in Nelspruit. They said there was a missionary house there, and it was free. Monday morning we were packed and brought down to these luxury accomodations. Then Lynn and Michael called to tell us they’d be taking Revolution and us on the tour of the village sites.
Huh? How’d that all happen? I had pretty much resolved that we would never get to see the sites and that was ok because Ella needed the work done on her home. God had it all figured out though. He arranged the housing, the tour, and we even have wireless internet where we are staying!
So, when the Laubscher’s pulled up on Monday, we all piled in and made our way to the sites. the first was right on the Crocodile River, next to the electric fence of Kruger National Park. Across the river lay some snoozing hippos. Further down the river, were bathing hippos. And children would live here… wake up to wild animals in their yard?! Can I be an orphan? Essentially, the vision is to build 5 or so homes (to begin) with 6-10 kids in them, with house parents in each home. The parents would be locals. There would be an administrator house (most likely for a missionary couple) and some sort of economical subsistence on site. The river site would have a hotel on the grounds where the kids could learn helpful occupational skills, and the hotel would give a share of the profits to the village. The other site we visited would grow geraniums. the oil from the plants would be sold to perfume makers and the money poured back into the village. The children there would learn farming skills. Another goal is to teach handicrafts to the kids to sell to tourists. Essentially, these villages would end up being self-sufficient after the initial support to get the villages up and running.
Michael said something to Scott and I that was a little of the cuff. In essence, he thought that we would make great administrators for one of the village sites. Scott and I have discussed this idea a little since that day (it hadn’t been a thought prior to the comment). We could see ourselves in Africa. The need is so apparent. At risk children need to be given an opportunity to be a functioning part of society, and these villages are an excellent example of how to move them in that direction. Are we called here? I don’t know, I’m a little scared to ask God just yet.
