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.
build deep to build wide
What a pointless structure...sure it's something to admire as a great work of art, but it's mostly useless. Scaffolding is meant to help build something-to leave something that is much sturdier and far more secure behind. The point isn't the scaffolding but the structure.
"The mission society is like scaffolding that is used to build a building, and the scaffolding is designed to be moved elsewhere eventually. As long as it is there, one cannot really see what the building looks like. Sadly, the kind of scaffolding that some mission societies erect and maintain is the kind that actually holds the building up. Removing it could jeopardize the structure!
Have you ever seen a building or bridge made with poured concrete? The builders put wooden or metal trusses under the bridge, and then pour concrete over the top to form the road over the bridge. Suppose for a moment that the engineers and the construction people built such a structure with concrete so weak that they couldn't take out the framework used to hold it up. That is sometimes why mission societies hold on the way they do, because the structure they built is tied to the mission. And if one were to "take down" the mission scaffolding, the fear is that the entire structure would collapse. It may take a heap of Christian grace to acknowledge when this is the case and to do something about it."
We had an incredible week with Mr. Derrick and his wonderful family. He has built beautiful 'buildings' all over eSikhaleni. But he's in the business for a little renovating. We have committed to working alongside him and each of his teams and church body to plant the gospel through eSikhaleni and Zululand. Mr. Derrick has this inspiring drive and passion to see the church BE the church within their communities. To reach those in his neighborhood, places of business and surrounding communities that are so far from living out of their relationship with their creator.
Each night we were there we joined him and the church he leads at their "Easter week tent revival". Each night Mr. Derrick shared a bit of his vision for what their community could look like if the gospel was at the heart of life in Esikhaleni. He motivated his church body to "be" the church in stead of "doing" church. He even gave a brief training for how they are going to get there.
Mr. Derrick has a dream of planting 35 million simple churches over the next 7 years throughout South Africa. You may be laughing, and you wouldn't be the first. Each time he shares his dream and vision the room erupts into laughter. But Mr. Derrick doesn't mind because he has a plan. This year he is heavily investing in 12 people. The next year he's going to help each of them invest in 12 people and the year after that he'll help those 12 invest in 12 more... Mr. Derrick understands the principals of multiplication and understands even more that he could never build a building big enough to hold, let alone attract 35 million people to himself--beautiful isn't it?
Scaffolding was made to support a structure so it could be moved to help build the next building. It was never meant to be the building. There is no way for it to function the way a building ought to. Plotting, planning and praying as we support Mr. Derrick and his enthusiastic endeavors to bring a bit of heaven to earth throughout South Africa.
Spend a Summer in South Africa
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