South Africa Video

For those that missed the weekend of my video here it is. I hope you enjoy it. This was a magical trip that blessed me and those we worked with while we were there. I haven't been able to thank all of you individually but I really do count it a blessing to have been sent by all of you. I couldn't have done it without the support of all you crazy Lion Chasers that helped make it happen.

We will be having class this Sunday for the last time this year. Please make it a point to be there. I know you are all looking forward to being able to sleep in through December but we won't have any more through the holiday season.

I love you all and look forward to seeing you again.

Wally

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This, my favorite of all the major holidays, is going to be a great weekend. Why is it the best? No presents!!

Thanksgiving is kind of like Christmas without all the angst regarding gifts. You get all the good stuff. Family, food, football, cooking, and movies are the plays of the day for both and are great. However, the lack of consumption is so refreshing.

So, enjoy your Thanksgiving and the refreshing family time that it is. Don't stay up too late; Christmas shopping starts at 4AM on Friday.

Wally

Thoughts From the Comfort of Home

After a 25 hour plane ride home we arrived in Dallas to friends and family. It is nice to be back in the US. My beautiful family arrived at the airport with some dear friends to welcome us back. It was very nice.

In trying to summarize this trip I have so many conflicting feelings. When asked by Staci, if I was ready to go back the answer is two sided. I don't want to return due to the level of suffering that you experience and the depth of the pain. On the other hand there is nothing like serving the Lord in this capacity.

First the good. Jesus is quite clear that you are serving him when you are serving the least of these. There is more blatent opportunity to serve the Lord in Africa than most anywhere else in the world right now. It seems disease, poverty, and death are around every corner and there is an orphan waiting for ANYONE to come and show that you care about them. There is an extreme level of joy that comes in serving.

Why not go back? Pain that deep is not easy to deal with. I remember the last time I felt that level of pain and it was during the death of a 10 year old boy that was the son of a good friend. There was a point in this trip that I got a glimpse of our Lord's pain as he yearns for his children. Why does God allow this kind of suffering? I don't know but I certainly was asking.

The question for this trip that was answered, "will I go if I am sent." I have answered that question for the time being. I am just responsible for taking the next step. I don't know what that step will be, however, I am willing to take it.

I appreciate all the prayer and effort it took for our little team to go. I want to thank each of you for your part. There were people that loved on my family, took Staci out on her birthday, fixed Caleb's bike, watched the kids, served dinner, checked to see if there was any work that needed to be done, worked on the project with me, and emailed to let us know you were thinking about us.

Lastly, I appreciate my dear family for what they gave up while I "Chased the Lion" to the other side of the world. I know it was hard. They not only "made it" but blessed me upon my return with what they had done while I was gone. I am very lucky to have a family that is willing to give so much.

Wally

Winding Down - Mathew 25:40

Well, it has come down to one more meeting with the CEO adn COO of Hands and I will officially be done for this trip. There is much more work to do but it will take place at home.

There really isn't a way to summarize the trip within the confines of this blog. The impact of the trip will be whether what I have seen will make me live a different life at home. I pray that I will never forget what I have seen and felt here.

We finished last night with worship, prayer, and communion together. It was a powerful experience. Our team has shared something unique in that we were not close before we came. Mostly, we didn't know one another. Foxholes has a tendency to create deep and lasting friendships. We all feel like we are about to climb out together and there is a sense of relief on the team.

We all share the same concern. How do you translate this to people back home. There is so much need, so much pain, so much death, yet our God is enough. I don't know how; but he is.

This is something that the team will all be a part of in some form for the rest of our lives. I hope I am able to help people get here to serve their Lord in this place. Matthew 25:40

Thank you all for your help in getting me here through prayer and support. I hope I am able to do the same for some of you. I ask you now to pray for those working here in Africa. They are volunteers for the most part and come here with a heart to be the hands of Jesus.

See you soon,

Wally

Cramming for Finals

After looking through my posts, I am encouraged to be brief.

Today the team has travelled to Cork, SA, to do home based care in that community. I am back on campus completing all I can to leave Hands at Work with guides on what needs to be done next.

This is similar to preparing for finals. Tomorrow at 330 PM I will meet with the CEO and COO and present my ideas for improvement and show them what we have completed while I was here.

All the people I have worked with have been great. I ask a lot of them with hard deadlines and they have hit most of them. Business here is not like at home. People are more relaxed about deadlines and requirements. They have been gracious with my requests. However, I am pretty sure some of them will be helping me pack.

We leave on Friday morning for a trip to Kruger Game Preserve that is just a couple of miles away. This is going to be a great experience as we should see all kinds of animals from a truck just like you see on TV.

From Kruger it is back to Joburg and begin the short trip home. (uuuggghhhh) The winds are supposed to turn the 15 hour flight here into 18 hours fight back to Washington DC. That is a really long time to be on a plane...

Wally

Simple Observations Through the Senses

One of the great things about being here is just the chance to see something new. It isn't always easy but I do appreciate it more now.

Here are some simple observations about South Africa through the senses.

• It rains with the electrical intensity of a power plant. No sleeping peacefully through these storms.
• There are very few puddles in the morning. The ground must be so thirsty that it soaks it up quickly.
• While running in the morning you will smell the intensity of mangos and tropical flowers.
• Monkeys are funny and don't like you to look them in the eye.
• Beetles are huge.
• Centipedes viewed to this point max out at about 8 inches.
• Driving on the wrong side of the road isn't as hard as it looks.
• Nobody here seems to be in hurry for anything until they get in a car.
• Bathwater can have a smell.
• Home cooked food tastes better than you think.
• The touch of another human can transform a bad situation to a good one.
• South Africans hold your hand while they talk to you until the short conversation is done. It is nice to have the connection.
• God can touch you through worship in any language.
• Everyone in the world has an accent except those from Texas.

Wally

Quiet on Campus

Tonight is a little different in that most of the team is doing something called "home stays." They divided up into teams of two and have ventured into the community for a two night stay in the community of Masoyi. This is the community that Masoyi Home Based Care serves. Several were apprehensive but did it anyway. I stayed behind to work and to have a couple more meetings in the morning.

Jeff returned telling us that one team is staying with a guy that will sleep on the kitchen floor so the visiting couple can have his bed. He told them that he didn't have electricity but it was okay because he would cook their dinner on his gas stove. The common denominator of the love of Jesus goes a long way to bridging our two worlds.

I am excited to hear their reports when they return. I hope to get a majority of my work done before they are back. I am still very overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done but God is merciful and will direct. I was offered a position here to have more time to finish the work but I have presently declined. I promised Staci that I would at least come back to Dallas to pick them up.

I went down to see the hippo that lives in the lake at the bottom of the hill this evening. It is interesting to have hippos to view as the sun goes down. God is good.

I am looking forward to sharing God's grace and how he has really blown up my little world. I don't know that God calls everyone to an adventure like this but I highly recommend it.

Wally

Saturday - God Cries Too

Today was an incredible day for the team as we took a field trip to the St. John Mission about an hour South of the campus. The ride was crazy enough as they were doing highway construction on the road that we took. They don’t shut down two lanes and complete them before starting on the other two. They tear up the whole thing and you drive on dirt where the road should be. However, I am burying the lead story here.

The mission is run by six nuns (sisters) and there are 28 children that are a mix of HIV+ and HIV-. All children are there because they have been removed from the family (using that term loosely) or both parents have died from HIV/AIDS. There are about 20 children on side of the facility that are younger than about 7 and the other from 7 and up. I was put with the older group for some serious play time.

Hide and seek, reading Spiderman, swinging, running, making videos on Jeff’s camera, singing, and a tour of the facility were the items of the day. I made a special with connection with a boy named Victor. We played together most of my time there. I was able to give him a gift gave me the day that left. Caleb wanted to send something for a special boy and it was clear that this was him. I was able to bless him with Caleb’s gift.

Victor’s story is one of miracle and complete heartbreak. He was found at a hospital a few days after his mother struggled to gain the strength to tell the sisters that there was a baby boy that he had and left at a camp. The sister hunted for him for days and eventually found him at a hospital where was taken to die. The sisters rescued him and he has been with them since.

His birthday was established as Jan 1, 2000, by the courts and his name picked by the sisters. He has no sense of history except that someone at St. Johns loves him.

Needless to say this was an emotional nuclear bomb. Upon arriving last week, Jeff talked about letting Jesus touch you in a way that will destroy how you look at the world. I was safe until today… The damage is done.

May God bless you to feel His heart for His kids. He is the Father to the fatherless.

Wally

Day Four

Today I will tell you about what the rest of the team is doing. We have several jobs while we are here and people are rotated through each area daily. The areas are the garden, the building project, home based care, hospice and two orphanages. Everyone has enjoyed the different jobs but the favorites seem to be the building project, because of the workers, and the orphanages, because you just love on and play with the kids.

Today was Jeff’s day to do some home based care with a group called ACTS that is currently serving 1000 people that are HIV+ in the Masoyi community. He had a wonderful experience of seeing a man that was mere days from death last year that is now walking and doing well. That experience was followed by a drastically different one.

Upon arriving at the small home, a woman walked out wearing a black scarf to tell the nurse, and Jeff that the patient had passed away. He was HIV+ and had suffered terribly. Jeff and the nurse were invited to come in and sit on grass mats and pay their respects. They did.

The story in Masoyi is like Jeff’s day. Good things are happening and terrible things are happening all around. Yesterday, one of the teams was able to go in a treat a small child with medicine. His grandmother was a witchdoctor. Both happiness and horror live in the same home.

There are a lot of people working hard here. Our team is one of many that will come through and assist this year. People that follow Jesus they tend to end up near the sick, the poor, and the dying. There are a lot of those here.

Blessings to all,

Wally