In 2009, I went to South Africa to visit my friend Nisah who was serving in the Peace Corps. I really wanted to see her and with my spirit of service, wanted to serve however I could within my scope of practice. So, we discussed service projects I could start and I saved up money from my travel nursing assignments and booked a flight to Johannesburg.
Nisah lived in Tzaneen, a small “city” that was 4-5 hours away from Johannesburg on a good day. Surrounding Tzaneen were several villages where I’d later work. South Africa is a beautiful country, but most of the individuals I came in contact with were suffering.
Soon after I arrived in Tzaneen, I wanted to start work. I volunteered with a Non- Governmental Organization by the name of CHoiceTrust. One of CHoiceTrust’s operations was empowering and training caregivers who lived in five villages outside of Tzaneen to take care of their fellow neighbors who were sick and/or suffering. I agreed to oversee the caregivers and lend my expertise (via the caregivers translation at times) with diseases prevalent in their villages such as HIV, Hypertension and Diabetes. I would also train a new group of caregivers the signs and symptoms of childhood diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, etc and attend group therapy sessions with orphans who lost both of their parents to HIV/AIDs. I was very humbled at these opportunities presented before me to serve.
The first of four weeks I was there, I was mentally and physically exhausted. It was a severe culture shock. My fellow brothers and sisters were living in what I thought were deplorable conditions. No running water, no beds, seldom had hot food (or a plethora of food) to eat, no shoes and only the clothes on their backs to wear. Some of them were children leading entire households while going to grade school. I mean, I knew people lived like that by watching those super sad television commercials, but seeing it with your own eyes on the television screen versus holding the hand of a crying child or talking to a dying father who is the head of his household are two very different things… these people looked like me. This could be my child, or my father even! As an American, can you imagine being on a dirty cold concrete floor sick and dying? Can you imagine an 11 year old girl having to take care of her 4 younger brothers and sisters because her mother and father both died of AIDs? I couldn’t. That first week, I took a day off just to be with my thoughts and to pray for them. Then, I got the strength to get back up and do more service work.
My heart truly broke for all of them individually. I served 30+ patients from the ages of 5 to 66. Some of them were newly diagnosed with HIV while some of them had the virus for a couple of years. Some were very sick with opportunistic infections that caused them to become newly diagnosed with AIDs while I was there. Some of my patients had acquired Tuberculosis- a lethal and highly infectious lung disease- and lived with a family of 12 and had nowhere else to go. Some had wounds from poor circulation caused by their Diabetes and High Blood Pressure. It was very sad to me. They were all sick and dying and all I could do was talk with them, look at their meds, tell them about their side effects and teach them about standard health precautions. Then, I realized I am telling these families about standard health precautions such as proper hand washing and they do not even have running water. The hand sanitizers I bought with me from the U.S. would only last but for so long… and hand sanitizers don’t replace the need for hand washing, anyway (but were better than nothing at all). What were my patients going to do after it was gone? Sadly, little after I was gone, so were they. As I went back to the West, most of them went home to God. I watched them die and could do little to nothing about it.
One thing that bought me some peace is that most of them knew God. They were sick, they lived in villages with dirt roads, but they were happy… happier than the average American in my opinion. They were very excited that this “American woman” was coming to visit with them and talk with them. Most just wanted to talk. Some spoke a little broken English. They understood there was life after physical death and that fact made it somewhat okay for me.
Knowing God is not the case in many other parts of the world. According to World Christian Trends, the U.S. has 1.5 million full-time Christian workers which equals out to about 600, 000 congregations or one full time religious leader for every 182 people in the nation. Compare that to the rest of the world where there are still billions of people who have literally never heard the name of Jesus. Most of these “forgotten” are in poverty and could very well die without hearing what Jesus did for us. For every 78,000 people in these third world countries, there is only one missionary working to spread the love of God. Need I say more? I can’t sit back and do nothing and watch them all die, too. They’ve got to know that someone has already paid the price for their suffering… and that man is Jesus.
While thinking back over it, I can’t help but wonder if God was speaking about some of us Americans when He said, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Again, I tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Compared to the other parts of the world, we are rich! I can only speak for myself but I complain about only working 11 hours a week at my job, however, I have never gone hungry, have a somewhat desirable car that is completely paid off, have a closet full of clothes and shoes and am still able to make my rent and my bills. I am starting to feel like there is something very wrong here. I lay on my plush mattress every night while others lay on hard concrete surfaces. I have well over 40 pairs of shoes while others walk around with no shoes on their feet. How is that even fair? We look to the Beyonce’s and ColdPlays and think God is just talking about them being “rich” but if you look at it on a wordly scale, we are all rich and value material wealth of some sort. Do you think it will be easy for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven if we think about it in that way?
So, to answer the question: Belle, why are you going to all of these countries when we need help right here in the U.S.? Because I went to South Africa and watched them all die. I wont sit around and watch anyone else die without first knowing about God. As evidenced by the statistics, there are more missionaries needed to spread love in other parts of the world. The U.S. is saturated with religious leaders/teachers compared to other parts of the world, yet I believe most of us don’t teach or even spread love to unbelievers. It hurts too much for ME to see the sick, the dying, the poor and the lost wandering aimlessly through life. While we are on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram “turning up” in the club popping bottles, there are people suffering and dying at the lack of clean water. I don’t necessarily believe this is the way God for intended us to live. I’m not saying I’ve never been that woman who wanted to have fun because I still do have fun, trust me. Also, I’m certainly not saying that if you don’t sell all of your wordly possessions and travel the world to spread love then you are a bad Christian- because I think some things have their place in society. I just wish we as Americans did more for the world on a larger scale. After all, God told us to.
1 John 3: 17-18
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
XOXO,
Belle
