In just 17 days I will be back on U.S. soil for the first time in 11 months.
Month 11 has seemed surreal, both going too fast and, other times, time stands still.
This last month we have been in South Africa, and the Lord is doing amazing things here.
We are working through a full gospel church in Middelburg, South Africa with some of the most generous and loving people I have ever met.
Baby Safe House
The first week here in Middleburg, we had the amazing opportunity to work with a center for babies that have been abandoned. We got to hold, feed, and play with 10 amazing babies that are being cared for so well in this place.
There is a real problem here in South Africa with mothers leaving their babies at the hospitals, in fields, or even dumping them in trash bins,mothers who cannot support them, are being shunned by their families, or whose pimps force them to dump their babies.
This tragedy has been taken on by the local community and by the local church.
Not only do the babies who are saved get cared for, loved, and adopted; but a local Presbyterian church has plans to save as many babies as they can.
The Baby Safe is a product in development and hopefully to be finished soon.
The safe is a small building that will be put at the front of the church where mothers can leave their babies instead of dumping them places were they will not survive.
The baby safe has a drop door that mothers can open and place their babies safely inside.
Once the door is closed, sensors lock the door from being opened again, heat the interior to a safe temperature for the baby, and immediately call several first responders.
Not only are the authorities called, but the pastor of this church as well as a few others.
Response time to an abandoned baby is less than 5 minutes.
The baby safe house also dispenses paperwork explaining to the mother what will happen to her baby, and how to get in contact again if she changes her mind.
This will cut down immensely on the number of babies that don’t survive being abandoned.
It was amazing to see the community rally for the center and the church rally to create a safe space for babies to be dropped, with the assurance to their mothers that they will be safe and well cared for.
Frekkie & Leona
Our second week, we got to travel to Groblersdal to work with Pastors Frekkie and Leona.
This amazing couple listened to Gods call on their life, left everything they had, and come to Groblersdal to start a church.
The church they came to had recently been completely gutted. Young men has come through, stole everything, broken furniture, and even ripped all the carpet up.
Frekkie and Leona were not discouraged, and did not question what Jesus had called them to do.
Instead, they have worked incredibly hard to rebuild the church, build loving relationships with the community around them, and they even were able to find and evangelize to the very men who destroyed the church.
Our time with Frekkie and Leona was exactly what we needed. We served them as much as they served us.
We look at service as always doing something, but this week we talked.
We had conversations, we had cookouts, we told our testimonies, we cried together, and we took communion as a family.
They showed us the importance of viewing service not only as doing something physically, but that love, a hug, a kind word, or just a listening ear is all that people need sometimes.
That’s all we needed this week, and that’s all they needed from us.
They have the most beautiful family that is devoted to serving the Lord, and they taught us one of the most important lessons that I have learned on the Race.
Love God and love people in your own way, in your own skin, and meet them just the way you are.
I couldn’t be more thankful for the way that our team has been generously served and poured into this month, and I’m certainly more equipped to come home now that we have been in South Africa with these incredible families.
