Last week I was reminded of how crazy life can be for some of the kids we work with at Ithemba.

Bulalani (pronounced Boo-La-La-Knee) is a 12-year-old boy with a soft gravely voice and deep self-confidence that makes him steady like the rhythm of a freight train.  Last week he was held at gunpoint while going to one of the little township shack stores, for his mom.  Bulalani, completely paralyzed with fear, stood with his hands white-knuckle clinched in his pockets.  He finally snapped out of the trance when one of his friends pushed the guy from behind and they escaped running like mercury on the wind.

I am thankful that he is okay, but the whole ordeal got me thinking about the environment in which these kids grow up.  How do you change environment?  How do you change culture?  How can you empower people to want to change social atmosphere?

I have a lot more questions than answers.  What I do know is that every kid we impact through Ithemba is another solution puzzle piece that has gently slide into place.  So for now, I’ll just hold onto my questions and my hope that change WILL come one child at a time.

LOVE. JOY. PEACE.

Zach

I recently heard someone speak about human’s search for significance.  I think the message really hit home with me because greatness is something we all long for; it is written on our very hearts.

But often times we don’t know how to achieve greatness.  How do/can we even measure significance?

When we look at a sampling societies across the centuries, kings, aristocrats, generals, the upper echelon, crème-of-the-crop, all seem to teach us it’s how many people that serve you that makes your great.

But Jesus offers us a different measure of greatness in Mark 9:35.  He says, (I paraphrase) that if you want to be great, you must be a servant.

So maybe it’s not how many people that serve you that makes you great, but how many people you serve that makes you great.

Then he says that when we welcome/serve people as if they are children, we are welcoming God himself.  (verse 37)

Which begs the questions, if they are children, whose children are they?  Which brings up the next question, why are we welcoming God, if we welcome them as children? Which might be the point, to create an association between people/children and Father God; to remind us that all people are made in God’s image, innately valuable, deserving dignity, not because of WHO they are but because of WHOSE they are.

When we serve people we acknowledge, through our actions, that they have worth. In the process we spend our lives on things that will outlast our lives, the greatest use of life!

So may our eyes be transformed until we see people as God does and with new vision may we seek to live lives of service therefore GREAT LIVES!

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” (Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love)

LOVE. JOY. PEACE.

Zach

Have you ever noticed that some people’s name just seems to fit them?  Like, “He couldn’t be anything other than a Bob- he’s just a Bob.”  Well let me introduce you to my friend Gloria- who is glorious!  She is the sunshine, raying down contagious smiles, and radiating warmth from her inner being.  Like the sun, you know if you’ve basked in Gloria’s presence because she is one of the most genuinely joyous people you’ll ever met and she gives world-class hugs!  Gloria is also the cleaning lady at Ithemba.  She’s tremendously hard worker and we are so blessed to have her!

A little while back we found out that Gloria’s small shack had been flooding due to an abnormal amount of rain we’ve had in Jeffrey’s Bay this winter (northern hemisphere readers just remember the season are opposite).   Just imagine how terrifying it must be to wake up in the middle of the pitch-black night, feeling as if the cold water beneath you was destroying and washing your entire existence away. If you are lucky, the driving rain will subside the next day and the sun will come out to dry your world. If not it will be another cold wet night.

And so, while we can’t always “change the world,” we can change someone’s world.  That’s what we endeavored to do, HOME MAKEOVER, ZA EDITION.

The project mainly consisted of waterproofing her shack’s roof, one of its sidewalls, tiling her floor, and building a cement barricade around the exterior of the house to divert water.  With the help of the group from Brentwood, TN, and with the help of the “Tarquinio men” (Gavin, Luke and Father Tom), Gloria is officially sleeping in a dry home!

How tremendously blessed it is to give, especially to someone as wonderful as Gloria, who constantly reminds us what it means to serve others.

LOVE. JOY. PEACE.

Zach