e-holiness

a day in a life in grabouw

it's been a while since i posted on e-holiness, of which i am truely sorry, however we are trying to seatle into our new life in south africa, the post i have written captures a day in our life and i hope that this will challenge you.

whilst much of our time has been taken up by the need to get the children and volunteer accommodation sorted for our first visitors and patients, we have spent time out in the community, below we have tried to put together some of our thoughts and feelings about a day that we spent working at the thembacare facility in Grabouw, and the needs and issues that raised, this will basically make up our prayer request and as you read through it please could you pray for each of the situations we raise.

The day starts at the thembacare facility in grabouw, this centre is run by thembalitsha and provides in-patient care for those infected with either HIV, AIDS or TB, we have seven beds to care for these desperately ill people, along with TB and HIV counselling rooms, where people can come to be tested for their HIV status, as well as an open plan room for our community caregivers to work out of, these ladies visit and follow up the patients who have been through the centre, where they ensure that the person is taking their ARV(anitrectovirals drugs which boost the immune system) and are able to cope at home with their disease, and it’s with those caregivers we will spend most of today.

we start with prayer at 8am, by this time the Caregivers (CG) have sent their families off for the day and walked from their home, some from good distances, before going back out to work with those less fortunate than themselves. as a background some of the CG are HIV+ themselves and have been through thembacare before getting back on the road to recovery and being offered a job with us. the patients they visit live in the same communities as these workers, we feel this the best way for thembacare to offer support to those they are helping as the CG already have relationship with those they are serving.

the CG’s then take the patient files and work out their ‘beat’ for the morning before coming back in the afternoon to write up their notes, today my wife maz is the driver for two of the CG’s and starts off collecting a man suffering from TB from a local farm to take down to the local Town Hall, where it’s ‘disability signing on day’, the guy, who used to live under one of the bridges in town before committing a crime which meant that he would be arrested and given a roof over his head and food in his belly, has spent the last three months trying to get some disability allowance, but even with the help given by thembacare this has still not come through, he can’t work and lives a life of poverty. ‘disability day’ only happens once a month, a couple of guys from the local government, which is located in caledon, situated about 25 miles east of Grabouw, have arrived to receive the applications and once we arrive to drop this man off there are hundreds of people ahead of him in the queue.

we left the man, who will spend the next 8 hours in the queue and head back to thembacare to pick up a patient who needs to visit the doctor to have further drugs prescribed, by this time the sun is full in the sky and the temperature is rising, the day hospital also has a mass of people, none are given set times for a visit, they just seen the next available doctor and wait in lines which extend out of the building into the blistering sun, remember these people are sick with AIDS, the system seems crass and crude and to be told that ‘this is africa’ is just a lame excuse as so many of it's citizens live life as we do in the first world!.

next we are off to complete our first visit and to our surprise it’s to a little girls home who we came to know in 2006, on entering her home, a 6ft square tin shack built on top of a craggy outcrop with no electric or running water, we have had to stop the car some way away from the home as the rabbit warren of other dwellings sitting one on top of another make it impossible to  drive anywhere near and the amount of rubbish and other such stuffs (let your imagination flow and you still won’t even come to a thought or scene as bad) overwhelm and appals you. Our senses are then hit not by the bareness of the home but of the complete darkness in which these people, and thousands like them who make up this little community, live, once our eyes become accustomed to the lack of light we are greeted with smiles and a sense of hope that we can’t describe, these people live with so little but are so happy and pleased to welcome us into their home. a simple timber structure makes up a bed which the mother and child sleep, there are no pictures on the cardboard walls only scraps of newspaper which insulate against the harsh winds and cold in the winter and the scorching sun in the summer, the smell that hits you is one of decay and a strong sense of paraffin, which provides fuel for the cooker, a two ring burner, which this family are fortunate to have, others around cook over an open fire, in shacks with no ventilation, other than the holes in the walls where the tin and cardboard fail to meet.

the little girl, who was admitted to thembacare with TB of the pancreas, has now run outside and is happily playing with a couple of stones in the sand which surrounds her home, she has nothing to play with and little hope of attending a pre-school life is hard but she seems oblivious to her poverty, however our minds are full of thoughts about the wine we had with our amazing 4 course meal which we ate last night at the restaurant which sits just, literally ‘just’ over the back side of the hill on which this community is built, it can’t be more than 300 yards away but the distance could be hundreds of years or thousands of miles in our mind and for these people!

as the day progressed i went to work with his football project, which has around 60 children on the books, these children come from homes as poor as the ones we have just described, however he was disappointed that only around 30 children turned up for the session, which not only delivers football skills but also life skills linked to the session along with a biblical application, we later found out that many of the children were missing due to the fact that it was the day that they needed to be tested for and treated for TB, it’s very hard to come to terms with the fact that many of the children we are working with, even if they look health, running around and even attending soccer schools, are living with TB.

towards to end of the day it was time to pick up the man waiting for his disability allowance and to our dismay we found out that not only had he not managed to see one of the two local government guys to chat through and put in his application, but when he asked when they were likely to be back for him to join another queue he was told that they weren’t sure but knew that it would be a friday!, for a guy who doesn’t have any transport or any means of communication it somewhat blows our minds to think that he was left with that answer.

as we leave this man we have a phone call to tell us that one of our friends brother has died from AIDS this afternoon, the sister will now need to sort out the funeral arrangements and pay for everything to ensure that his life is remembered in a way that we would expect, this expense has come out of the blue and will mean that this family will now have to wait till the next month’s payday to afford the basic food stuff which we all take for granted, what are we to do, put our hands in our pockets to help, and if for them then why not everyone we have seen today?

4pm and we are back at Thembacare Grabouw, the day has been long, hot and very frustrating, however the CG all meet up to pray at the end of their shift, thanking God for His provision for them and His strength and safe keeping as they served in their community, their day wasn’t over then, they would have to walk back home, perhaps prepare dinner, little more than maize meal and maybe some sausage or worse still other offal, which they will be cooking over a paraffin stove or open fire. It is amazing how these wonderful women whom Thembalitsha employ manage to present themselves so immaculately each morning as they prepare for another day. As we set off to leave for home we hear that one of the patients at thembacare passed away that evening, things seem so cruel.

as we drive home through the squatter camp at the bottom of our road we are greeted by hoops of joy and shouting as the children recognise our car, shall we give them a lift, just a joyride up and down the road, or are there more pressing things to do, like watching that TV, which thankfully we don’t have at the moment or catch the last rays of a wonderfully sunny day?....you guessed it the children win.............only wish i could take them to the beach and let them experience the feel of water lapping over their feet, oh well maybe tomorrow!

i think that sums up a day and as we come home to our warm home, with a nice tiled roof over our heads, a fridge, washing machine and cooker which is connected to the mains power we just want to share with you some of the some words and thoughts which we feel as we serve those with little hope in our new town:-

shock,  rabbit warren, size of the homes, some less then 6ft x 6ft, poverty, AIDS, hopeless, third world, first world, health care, playing with a stone outside of her shack, caregivers, walking through swaves of rubbish, smell of paraffin, sick people live in these dire conditions when they are so ill, disability allowance, no appointment system, shoplifted to get arrested to have food and shelter, burst appendix, medical care, lives on a farm, has to be picked up. no other means of communication, day hospital full of people, doctors can only see so many each day, everybody is doing the best they can but just seems like treading water, football boys not turning up on Monday because of TB, funeral..

......however in it all we are seeing God in action, these amazing women and the work of thembalitsha in the community is making a difference, maybe not to all but certainly to some and that is all God asks us to do... the book of james tells us that true religion is to look after the widows and the orphans, this is what me, maz and arron are seeking to do as we serve those in Grabouw, please join us in our prayers for these people, the system they live under and the day to day fight for life that so many face each day.

thanks tref..

i just wanna thank tref for this link, not sure why he hasn't posted it on his blog but the print out version was a great read, have a look at the following post called what would jesus construct?, i agree with so much here and would pick up on one of the issues which is a real sticking point with me, that of the idea that the teacher is the only voice which can be heard and often belongs to someone who doesn't live or has ever experienced life in the 'real world', their stories and opinions can be clouded and whilst teaching is a God given gift, some don't even posses that gift yet have the ear of a whole church...this coupled by the fact that many of our 'church' models don't fit with our busy work and home lives it does come down to our own personal relationship with God and the need to bind ourselves daily to Him to seek His ways of not only speaking to us but also speaking through us.

too much stuff not enough time!

i have started this post a couple of times already, monday and tuesday, however time seemed to run away with me and i never managed to get further than the first couple of lines.

since returning from south africa last week we have been so busy, i mean my life is quiet hectic at the best of times but over the weekend we left our family home (which we have lived in since we got married 20 years ago) and moved down to a friends house, well should i say we moved into a room at a friends home, where we will be staying for the next four weeks before the big move to south africa in october.

when i returned from south africa i was somewhat shocked at the sight of my house, maz had spent the two and half weeks whilst i was away clearing up, sorting through and where necessary throwing out so much of our stuff that i was surprised to see so much still left in our lounge as i came through the door....i have never considered myself as a hoarder, ok i do keep hold of motor racing programmes and magazines from the 1970's and the odd football programme, but where did all this clutter come from?

i guess i am as much part of our materialist society as the next man but as we seek to 'downsize' for our long term move to africa where we will be living almost on top of people who struggle to get through each day, i am trying to declutter my whole life, not only the things i have but also the time that i put into what would be considered normal to our western eyes.

i am seeking God as to what he wants me to take and the more i think about it the more i come to the conclusion that all He wants me to take is myself and His love and compassion that He has placed in my heart for these poor and needy people......in three of the gospels Jesus said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

i hope that i haven't taken that out of context but it feels like i have the whole world and it's riches at my hand but i need only to ensure that Jesus has my soul as that is all i need....to have Him in my life not the riches and material things that i have unknowingly surrounded myself with over these last 20 years.

please don't get me wrong i will be taking some clothes and books and maybe if you come and visit us we will have some of the trappings of this life but all i know is that Jesus wants me, not my stuff, dreams, ideas etc, and when He has stripped all that away then He will use me in a mighty way to further His kingdom here on earth.....

.....

commiting our plans

it's been a long time since i posted on e-holiness, what with the 18 day trip to south africa and our imminent move from our family home, an address we have lived at for over 20 years, there has been so much to do with so little time, however as we make the first steps towards our final move to south africa in october i am encouraged by the scripture found in proverbs 16 v 3 which says 'commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed'....in all that we are doing, what with the house move, the purchase of the land which will become 'the village of hope', our move to south africa, it is our desire to commit all our actions, whether the big or the small to God, sometimes this can be a hard thing to do, but over the years we have found that God is always faithful and His ways are trustworthy.

i hope that i will be able to post a few thoughts about the recent trip to south africa next week but for now please pray for us as we place our next steps into the Lords hands......

day eight a time to build..

with all my recent travelling i have had plenty of time at airports and on the road, time at hotel rooms both here and abroad, much of this time has been wasted but i have managed to get through a couple of books and also had the opportunity to listen to some teaching....

...following on from some teaching i have heard i want to encourage you today to press into all that 2008 holds for you, these thoughts come from a few talks i have heard by todd bentley, a canadian revivalist, who heads up the fresh fire ministries over there.

it's hard to put down into words all that i have heard, especially as i have so much else to do this morning, however a point that i have really focused on is that 2008 is a year of new beginnings, a year of starting over, a year of open doors and a year to build. all this sits so well with my spirit as we look to set up the village of hope in south africa for thembalitsha and we have already seen this year as all those things. however we can't just take what todd says as gospel, we must look to God's word to back this up.

i have never really been into the numbers way of thinking but as we look at 2008 we see the number 8, there are so many scriptures that back up the fact that eight is a starting day/year, God made the world in 6 days, man being the last to come to the party, the 7th day he rested, and from a time of rest things started over, man got going and the world took shape...in genesis we are told we should plant and harvest for 6 years and leave the 7th year fallow and on the 8th, yep plant again, start a new, build build build....there are many many more but i just wanted to highlight a couple that have encouraged me.

there are many seasons in our lives and there is so much more i could say about what i have heard, so much that todd has said has spoken to my spirit but as i share these limited thoughts with you please take time to think and pray about 2008 being a year of new starts of new beginnings of a time to build, to see God's breakthroughs in your lives as you extend his kingdom here on earth....

loving God not serving the law (man)

so much of our Christian walk can be taken up by worrying if we are in a right standing with God which is placed upon us by our understanding of the law, as we become more involved in organised religion the weight of expectation placed upon us can become overwhelming, no wonder our non Christian friends are reluctant to come to our churches as they see the burden of 'doing' which seems to consume all our waking time......if we aren't involved in worship, we are teaching the children, if not the children then we are making the tea or cleaning the loos, running a home group or youth club, and if we're not careful we miss the greatest relationship of all, that of our loving heavenly Father.

i'm not saying that all these things don't need to be done, but who are we following or trying to please, God or the pastor?.....i feel that there are a many of us that have lost our way, our relationship with God, because of the spirit of religion and expectation that is placed on us by our leaders and fellow followers....remember it's not by works that we can be made right with God, it's by our faith in Him.

when we came to Christ for the first time, we were caught up in our sin, we recognised that fact and God excepted us, unconditionally, with His grace and mercy....he offered Himself to us as we opened the doors of our broken and damaged hearts to Him.

..remember Jesus came that we might be set free from the law, even the laws placed on us by well meaning friends, lets come back to the one that loved us for who we were, still in our sin, He is the one who came to give freedom not bind us up into a even more stressful life and our giving, praying, reading His word etc should come from our love for Him and not to 'jump through hoops' to please Him or His followers.

Jesus speaks of the most important command in mark 7 28-34 and reads

one of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"the most important one," answered Jesus, "is this, 'hear, o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' the second is this: 'love your neighbour as yourself.' there is no commandment greater than these."

"well said, teacher," the man replied. "you are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." when Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "you are not far from the kingdom of God." and from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

we must remember that our first commitment is to God, to love Him with all our hearts, minds and strength, then to love our neighbour's as ourselves, this is much more important that all the laws, sacrifices and man pleasing we do.......lets strip our religion back to the basics and start loving our God before pleasing man

psalm 145

Psalm 145 reads

'will exalt you, my God the King, i will praise your name for ever and ever.

every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever.

great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, his greatness no one can fathom.

one generation will commend your works to another, they will tell of your mighty acts.

they will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and i will meditate on your wonderful works.

they will tell of the power of your awesome works, and i will proclaim your great deeds.

they will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

the Lord is good to all, he has compassion on all he has made.

all you have made will praise you, O Lord, your saints will extol you.

they will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations.

the Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.

the Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

the eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

the Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made.

the Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desires of those who fear him, he hears their cry and saves them.

the Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

my mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.'

amen, not much more to add there then.

everything

i know that songs by tim hughes aren't often sung at many alt worship services, but as i am continuing to discover there are some amazing and different types of worship that bring us into a deeper relationship to God, whilst this might seem like a pick and mix religion i would refute that, God has a way of speaking to us through various ways and whilst i love some parts of the traditional 'stained glass' services i also struggle with other sides of it, again i love to visit churches and engage with speakers leading us into the prophetic and spiritual gifts, but then again find some of it a little hard to swallow....in this song the above mentioned mr hughes has captured some amazing truths that would sit so well in any monastic order, whilst this song would usually be sung by evangelicals....my cry is that of tim's that God indeed would be my everything.

God in my living

there in my breathing

God in my waking

God in my sleeping

God in my resting

there in my working

God in my thinking

God in my speaking

be my everything be my everything be my everything be my everything

God in my hoping

there in my dreaming

God in my watching

God in my waiting

God in my laughing

there in my weeping

God in my hurting

God in my healing

Christ in me Christ in me Christ in me the hope of glory

You are everything Christ in me Christ in me Christ in me the hope of glory

be my everything You are everything Jesus, everything

doing the impossible

i am really enjoying looking at saint francis' life and words, each and every part of his story is inspiring me along the journey (a shocking word but one that sums so many things up) that God is leading me.

a couple of nuggets which are going to stay with me as we set out into 2008 and all that that holds.

'start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible'

'preach as you go'....

and my scripture thought for the day from proverbs 30 8-9 '..give me neither poverty nor riches! give me just enough to satisfy my needs. for if i grow rich i may deny you and say 'who is the Lord?' and if i am too poor, i may steal and thus insult God's holy name'

let that lifestyle be granted to me.....

a hope and a plan

the words from jeremiah 29 verses 11 to 14 are spoken so often, especially when we are encouraging someone to step out into a new ministry or direction, as a reminder here they are.... 

for i know the plans i have for you," declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and i will listen to you. you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. i will be found by you,' declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back from captivity. i will gather you from all the nations and places where i have banished you,' declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile'.

these are indeed amazing words and we shouldn't ignore them, however how many of you believe those words are true for all mankind, do we believe that the Lord has a plan to prosper the drug addict or down and out, what about the single parents or those with no family, what about people with a terminal disease like the children infected by aids in africa?

it's very easy to read and speak those words over a well rounded, well balance, well educated person in middle england but it takes faith to speak them out over someones life that isn't rosey...forgive me if you think i'm saying that people in middle england have it all sorted, sometimes these are the most needy people we know....however often they have a plan 'b' or even plan 'c', 'd' and 'e' but for many people in the world, especially those in the third world they don't and maybe that's the best place to be because God is the only plan. His plan however might not look like the comfy house, big car, large food bill, think about all those things, now do you think God's plan and future really include those?....

following the link through the 'order of the mustard seed' site i found this wonderful article about the oldest mission station in south africa, called genadendal or valley of grace. did george schmidt believe all he was told about the khoi people he went to work with that they were, as some still believe in our world today, little more than animals. no he provided them with homes and education, bibles and an opportunity to know God, i don't know too much about genadendal but it must have had some impact as nelson mandela named his cape town home after the place.....

2008 has been dubbed 'hope '08' and fittingly we are looking to set up a 'village of hope' in a place called 'hope dale' not a million miles away from genadendal (valley of grace) in south africa. do we believe that those children with aids have a hope and a plan straight from God, do they have a purpose in this life, are they people that need educating and shown the love of Jesus?....i certainly believe it...do you?