I had my first truly international mission experience last month. I have been wanting to write about it, but have simply not taken the time. So, now I am going to dive in with my first impression.
1. We are so very fortunate. Americans are so very fortunate to live in the greatest country on Earth. We are blessed in so many ways and I can't express how grateful that I am that I live here in this great place. The rest of the world is not like us and I am going to try to explain this truth.
In America, we complain about potholes in our roads, and there are surely roads with potholes in them. However, in South Africa there were a few places where there was more hole than road. There were some roads, on the map and our driver's GPS that were not able to be driven on. While sitting up front with our driver, there were several times that he would look at the road the GPS had him on and say, "I'm not even going to try that." Roads within towns and communities were regularly tricky and some unusable.
While we complain about the most trivial of things, I found that most in South Africa were thankful for such things. If we have to deal with a water problem at our house for a few hours, we get frustrated. In the town of Kroonstad, which we were warned has horrible water - all we could do is bathe in the water, nothing else - the children of the neighborhood sprinted to the water faucet outside of Emmanuel Baptist Church to get life sustaining, if filthy, water. One of the biggest thrills seemed to be when we purchased cups for the children to use at the church. They were simply thrilled with the blessing of a cup.
We have poor people in our midst. If you open your eyes you will find them all around you. I know this because I force myself to see the need around me, even when I don't want to. Yet, the need of those in our country are far from the needs of the people in South Africa. For example -
American poor - can't pay electric bill
SA poor - have no electricity
American poor - struggle to feed their families, but have some government support
SA poor- struggle to feed their families with no hope of support
American poor - homeless lack adequate shelter, but there are those at work to help in most towns and cities
SA poor- homeless are just that, without a home, and no answers from local, state or federal authorities
American poor - lack access to adequate health care, but can go to emergency room in real emergency
SA poor - have no place to go for help if they become ill
I suppose the bottom line is this - our poor have hope because somebody cares - government, churches, charity organizations, etc. The South African poor really have no hope - life is what it is and then it is gone. Seeing this has inspired me to life life differently. I no longer want to worry or care about the small things that can come against me. Those things are irritating, but should not be able to defeat us. Life is about more than what we want and complaining about not getting how and when we wanted.
Friends, we are so fortunate. We should live our lives constantly giving God thanks for His blessing.
More to come.
