Derek and Shea in SA

a good day

PREFACE:  If you could listen to Mumford and Sons-Timshel-while you read this, it would greatly enhance your reading pleasure...seriously.

Timshel<<click here to listen

We have been meeting with two guys in a place called Bhobhoyi for the past 7 weeks.  We meet to read the Bible together and talk about how we can become more obedient to His word.  One of the guys we meet with is kind of a church goer, kinda not.  When we met him he was in a "trial period" with God.  He had tried some of his cultural things, ancestor worship,  animal sacrifice, etc... and wasn't seeing any thing positive happen in his life.  So he tried God...he's trying God.  The other guy is not a church goer at all.  His family goes to the Zionist church, but he doesn't attend.  He wasn't really against God, but not really for Him either...neutral sort of.

Watching them read the bible and hearing their responses-what their learning, what they are doing in response to what they are learning, has been one of the coolest things I've ever seen or done in my life.  Derek and I don't teach or tell them our opinion, we leave that part up to God-we figure He can do a better job than either of us.  I'm watching them learn what it means to love from the One that created it.

One of the questions we ask when we meet is "is their any needs of each others we can meet this week, and if not, is there a need or stress in our community we can meet?"  Today they told Derek and I they had been visiting a boy and his family that used to meet with us.  The boy is 16 years old and his mother is really sick.  He isn't going to school because he moved to Bhobhoyi after the school year had begun.  They asked us if we would visit the family with them.  Of course.

We walked into a little one room flat.  It had a bed squeezed in one corner, a wardrobe in the other and a little burner in the other.  The boy is living their with his mother and two siblings.  They must have a mattress they pull out at night and sleep on the floor.  Another neighbor was their visiting as well. During our conversation the neighbor told us that the boy is going to have to get a job and provide for the family sense the mother can no longer work.  She reminded him that he had the brains and the physical ability to work and care for his mother.  The boy stood their and shook his head and my heart broke...he's 16! 16! He needs to be in school and playing soccer and laughing with his friends... But that's not his reality.  His story is the story of so many 16 somethings here...I hate that.  I hate it.

But the two guys we were there visiting with piped up.  They just said "we're here to encourage you, we're here to say hello and to sit and talk with you and visit you.  This isn't the last time we'll be here, we'll keep coming."  The boy smiled and shook his head again.

It was one of those moments.

Where everything stops for just a second.  It's so bad, but it's so good.  These guys we meet with have nothing to give. They have no money, no answers, not even a prayer (not yet, not yet, we're still in Genesis)...but they were there.  They are just two twenty somethings holding arms with a 16 year old kid going through a hard time, a really hard time.

Tonight I was doing the dishes and that song came on, Timshel by Mumford and Sons...and my eyes welled up with tears-

Cold is the water
It freezes your already cold mind
Already cold, cold mind
And death is at your doorstep
And it will steal your innocence
But it will not steal your substance

But you are not alone in this
And you are not alone in this
As brothers we will stand and we'll hold your hand
Hold your hand

And you are the mother
The mother of your baby child
The one to whom you gave life
And you have your choices
And these are what make man great
His ladder to the stars

But you are not alone in this
And you are not alone in this
As brothers we will stand and we'll hold your hand
Hold your hand

And I will tell the night
Whisper, "Lose your sight"
But I can't move the mountains for you

Today reminds me why I'm here...what could South Africa look like if a few more people would crack their bible and begin asking, what will I do about what I just read?  Would they stand with their neighbors, with nothing to give but to remind them they aren't alone?  We stand with you, for no gain of our own.  What would the world look like...now I'm getting a little extreme and sappy, but really??

We show up every Thursday morning to read the bible with a couple of guys from Bhobhoyi and our only hope is that He does too.