This was posted on facebook by Linda McKay today. We stayed with Linda’s mom and dad, who with Linda are missionaries in Backdoor, South Africa, while working with Linda and the team there and preparing for our trek into Mozambique.“Looking for Love” (February 2008)
By Linda McKay
“My ponderings and prayers today are focussed on Jabul ( whose name means ‘Joy’), a 16 year old girl from Backdoor and one of the kids who so captivated my heart on my first trip here that I was left in no doubt as to where I was meant to be. She is such an incredibly sweet girl & I love listening to her sing… and despite appearing timid she is a rising star of our puppet team! As a young girl she had to help her older brother to raise a younger brother and sister and an orphaned cousin so that her mother could continue to work. Then 4 years ago their mother died leaving them orphaned. Until an aunt took them in she has to take on the role of mother and today she still plays a defining role in raising the younger ones as well as going to school. She is a real inspiration to me. This week we found out that she is pregnant. And as I sit watching her playing around on the sofa with two friends it breaks my heart and I can’t help but feel that I have let her down… she is a child seeking for love and found it in the wrong place.”
In August Jabul gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Miguel. Today the tragedy of this story is heightened as Jabul died early this afternoon, aged just 17, after several weeks in hospital. As I sit in London 5000 miles away from where I want to be I can only thank God for bringing her into my life & for the inspiration she was to us all. And I can gain some small comfort in knowing that my last action before leaving was to hug her and tell her I loved her. Now my ponderings and prayers must turn to Miguel – a 4 month old orphan to add to the heart-breaking statistics in South Africa. For each statisic – for each orphan, for each of the 1000 people who die daily from AIDS in South Africa, for each person untimely dying to give South Africa the lowest life expectancy in Africa – there are families being broken, children living with an expectancy that those they love will die and hearts being shattered… I know.
Though I was there around the time of that first journal entry, I don’t remember Jabul, but I’m sure in all the people from Backdoor that are in and out of Linda’s home that we met I probably did talk to her. What hits me today is just mourning with my sister Linda, knowing the love she has for the children she helps feed, teach, and love in Backdoor, and out of the love for that township that was placed on my heart too. The knowledge that joining brothers and sisters in prayer makes a true impact is something I am always amazed at, thankful for, and humbled by all at once, and so in this time when I am so far from South Africa and all those going through this loss I am amazed, thankful, and humbled to be able to do just that. Please lift Linda, the Iris Ministries team, and the Backdoor community up in prayer – there is no end to the needs there, and that team is doing all it can to meet them.
