I just watched "The Passion of the Christ" for the second time this month.
The first time I watched it, it moved me in a way I could never describe. Not only did I realize that I give myself a hard time when I don't deserve it as Christ died so that I wouldn't have to be condemned or shamed, but I also realized how real our God is. Jesus is real. God is real. Real human beings really put Jesus Christ of Nazareth to death. He really died and really rose again. Need I say more? I'm convicted by the fact that I seldom understand this. I hardly ever get it. Most of the time, when I talk about Christ or Christianity, it's as if it's some abstract thing. I had to ask myself, why does it become this way? Maybe it's the fact that we tell the story over and over again. Maybe it's the fact that we've thought about it so many times that we feel like we can't get anything new out of it. Maybe it's because we're far removed from it. I know why in my own life it becomes this way; it's up to you to figure it out for yourself.
After watching "The Passion" tonight, all I can think of is the conviction that I'm not doing the Gospel justice. I'm not living the way I should be. I will never measure up to all of the things that God has called me to. Perfection? Nope. A sinless life? Nope. These things are impossible... without God. What a humbling statement this is! Not only are we nothing without God, but He has to be a part of the equation! With Him I can live righteously. I can live a holy life pleasing to Him. I can be sanctified. I may never attain all of the things He has for me and become the man He sees me to be on this side of Heaven, but the good news is that that is okay. All I can do is seek Him with all I have. I can only give Him my best, picking myself up when I fall and striving towards the Kingdom.
We are called to live selflessly. We are called to love others and not expect anything back. We called to deny ourselves, to pick up our cross, and to follow Him. I will be the first to admit that I am consistently falling short of these things. I do the opposite of them on a daily basis.
Where do you stand? When you look into the eyes of the Savior, what do you see?
Are you being stagnant, or are you being sanctified?
Salvation. Sanctification. They're what Christ died for on this very day over two-thousand years ago.
This day that we call, "Good Friday".
Friday, March 29, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
The Best Is Yet to Come, Pt. 2
Sanibonani!
On Saturday we went to uShaka Marine World, which is like Sea World but with a bunch of water rides (maybe Sea World itself is like that; I haven't been in years so I can't remember). Me and many others watched a dolphin show, in which our friend Kaitlyn got to pet and kiss a dolphin (she'd won a dance-off to win that place) and our other friend Sarah got to feed one! When the show wasn't going on the camera would pan the crowd and focus on all the crazy people dancing or the presumed couples, telling them they had to kiss. Kaitlyn and our friend Luke ended up on the kiss cam though they're not even dating! It was pretty funny. They didn't kiss, though Chetan (also in our group) pretended to kiss him and the whole crowd applauded. The dolphin show as a whole was my highlight. I spent the rest of the day in the water park, which was tons of fun. Africa's tallest water slide is there, finding itself at 13 meters high (sorry, they use the metric system here). I went down it, and lemme tell ya--it was quite the bumpy ride! We also made human trains down some of the other water slides (the worker allowed us to do it, though it technically wasn't allowed) and a random stranger got caught in the middle of one of them. It was pretty funny.
On Tuesday we had home visits again, the hardest of which was another man with AIDS who has no one supporting him (there are many stigmas here against those with AIDS; they end up being outcasted) and hardly ever has food to take his medication with. We'd brought him some food, which he was very grateful for. We asked to pray for him, which he agreed to, but before that he sang us a part of a gospel song. Again, it moved us in such a deep way.
Yesterday was a public holiday so all of the service sites were closed. Because of this, we had our Community Engagement class again, which entailed a lot of reflecting on the time spent at our service sites thus far. Today we spent the morning at an HIV support group, a group of women that meet weekly to not only support each other but to rise above their circumstances and to live a life of joy and hope. We asked them questions about themselves, the support group, and so on while they asked us questions about ourselves. We learned a lot from them, such as the fact that stigmas cause much of the abandonment and isolation of those who are HIV positive. Many of them don't tell their families they are HIV positive for fear of this. Their strength amazed us though. We spent the rest of our time their playing with the kids, singing, and dancing; they'd even made us Zulu bread and soup for lunch! Today was undoubtedly a great day. It truly has been a blessing to be serving at RivLife and engaging with the community during the short time we've been there. I can't wait for the latter half of our service segment! (We're already six out of 12 days in... isn't that crazy?!)
It is now week nine of the semester; just a little past the halfway point of my time here. I'll be here just short of four months, which has seemed short in some ways, yet seemed so long in others!
Last Thursday (a week ago) we started at our service sites; 43 of us (that's all of us apart from the nursing students as they're on a different track) have been serving at four different sites: Walk in the Light, RivLife, Itemba, and Etimbeni (I may have spelled that last one wrong, hah). My group is at RivLife--short for "River of Life"--and there are 16 of us, who have been split into four groups of four. We are on a sort of rotation with what we're doing, which is nice as I enjoy change and having to stay on my toes.
On Thursday my team of four was at a creche (preschool) all day, which was quite the day! There are about 35 kids that go there every day, who are so full of energy, which is still an understatement. They climb all over you, hang on you, play with your hair, run around, sometimes fight each other, fight over you, and much, much more. They are great to be around though and we enjoyed our day at the creche, which was spent hanging out with them and loving on them. Sounds easy, but it's very exhausting.
On Friday we did home visits, which entailed going along with two social workers and a community caretaker and visiting many that live in the community that RivLife finds itself a part of. The social workers visit the residents, see what their problems are, and do whatever they can to help them. We visited a man with AIDS who doesn't have his medication due to the fact that his family pick it up for him and then sell it as drugs. I have never seen someone so weak and without hope; it definitely broke me. Another young woman was unable to get her ID card as her mother had passed away and her death certificate had not been signed; without proof of her mother's death, the government wouldn't let her get her ID (she needed her mother's consent). We also visited a "gogo", an old woman who was in a wheelchair and only had one leg. What amazed us about this woman, however, was the love she had for her children and grandchildren. She had a joy about her that you would not expect to see; she kept proclaiming how faithful and good God is. If this isn't an encouragement, I have no idea what is. After home visits we spent the rest of the day at the Drop-in Center, which is where all the older kids come and hang out after school. It's technically the same place as the creche, but they get a hot meal and all hang out together.
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| Kaitlyn petting a dolphin as a part of a dolphin show at uShaka Marine World |
On Saturday we went to uShaka Marine World, which is like Sea World but with a bunch of water rides (maybe Sea World itself is like that; I haven't been in years so I can't remember). Me and many others watched a dolphin show, in which our friend Kaitlyn got to pet and kiss a dolphin (she'd won a dance-off to win that place) and our other friend Sarah got to feed one! When the show wasn't going on the camera would pan the crowd and focus on all the crazy people dancing or the presumed couples, telling them they had to kiss. Kaitlyn and our friend Luke ended up on the kiss cam though they're not even dating! It was pretty funny. They didn't kiss, though Chetan (also in our group) pretended to kiss him and the whole crowd applauded. The dolphin show as a whole was my highlight. I spent the rest of the day in the water park, which was tons of fun. Africa's tallest water slide is there, finding itself at 13 meters high (sorry, they use the metric system here). I went down it, and lemme tell ya--it was quite the bumpy ride! We also made human trains down some of the other water slides (the worker allowed us to do it, though it technically wasn't allowed) and a random stranger got caught in the middle of one of them. It was pretty funny.
That night my biology class (or former class, I should say) went to our professor's house for dinner. We had warthog, which was quite delicious! I'd say it tasted like pork, though maybe it tasted more like chicken... maybe both?! Either way it was delicious!
On Sunday we did a thing called "Talking Drums", which is best explained as elementary school music class all over again. We got to play drums, maracas and other instruments for over an hour--it was a blast! Despite the fact that we all had much homework to do, we had a lot of fun.
On Monday my team did manual labor, spending the day in the blazing sun plowing and planting chili plants. The guy in charge said we'd done more than any other group from APU had ever done--booyah! It was actually one of my favorite days; I felt awesome once we were done. So therapeutic, yard work is! That night me and several others went to a jazz concert which ended up being a traveling high school group from Boston, Mass. They were pretty good!
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| Me with a bunch of kids at the creche |
On Tuesday we had home visits again, the hardest of which was another man with AIDS who has no one supporting him (there are many stigmas here against those with AIDS; they end up being outcasted) and hardly ever has food to take his medication with. We'd brought him some food, which he was very grateful for. We asked to pray for him, which he agreed to, but before that he sang us a part of a gospel song. Again, it moved us in such a deep way.
On Wednesday we spent the day with the gogos (old women), who make fabric products (curtains, skirts, etc.) and sell them to make a living. Stigmas are also present here against older women, so by working and making a living they are coming against those stigmas. The woman we mainly spent time with was Nombula (I think that's her name; it means "the rain" as it was raining when she was born), who runs a creche to keep children safe from abuse when their parents or caretakers are gone at work and also makes food to feed those in the community. We call her the Mother Theresa of South Africa. She made us Zulu bread (which is amazing, but even better freshly cooked!) and "fat cooks", which is Zulu bread fried in balls in oil (kinda like rolls). We were so blessed by her and I loved hearing all about her life. Can't wait to go visit her again, and hopefully help her out with her garden! (She asked if we could help her with it next time we visited.)
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| Sfundo and I |
Yesterday was a public holiday so all of the service sites were closed. Because of this, we had our Community Engagement class again, which entailed a lot of reflecting on the time spent at our service sites thus far. Today we spent the morning at an HIV support group, a group of women that meet weekly to not only support each other but to rise above their circumstances and to live a life of joy and hope. We asked them questions about themselves, the support group, and so on while they asked us questions about ourselves. We learned a lot from them, such as the fact that stigmas cause much of the abandonment and isolation of those who are HIV positive. Many of them don't tell their families they are HIV positive for fear of this. Their strength amazed us though. We spent the rest of our time their playing with the kids, singing, and dancing; they'd even made us Zulu bread and soup for lunch! Today was undoubtedly a great day. It truly has been a blessing to be serving at RivLife and engaging with the community during the short time we've been there. I can't wait for the latter half of our service segment! (We're already six out of 12 days in... isn't that crazy?!)
That's about it for now. In case you haven't heard, the deadline to send me mail has long passed since it won't get to me in time. We leave Pietermaritzburg for good (I can't believe it...I feel like we just got here!) in a little over two weeks, and international mail takes 2-4 weeks to arrive.
Thanks for following my adventures and praying for and supporting my team and I! I count each one of you as tremendous blessings in my life. :)
Take care,
Gary
Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Best Is Yet to Come, Pt. 1
It's a truth we have to remind ourselves of on a regular basis. It's not to say that things are necessarily unpleasant as they currently are; it simply means that there are always better things to look forward to. When we quit believing this, we get caught in a state of hopelessness and apathy; a place where we quit giving life all we've got and get stuck in a rut.
I must admit that I have been awful at blogging lately. Much has happened in the last several weeks since I blogged last. I guess I'm getting to a place where I want to be fully present and save the reflection for later, which is not usual for me considering how much I tend to self-reflect and externally process things. I'm coming to realize too though that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've learned that there are a lot of things about my time here in South Africa (experiences, ways in which I'm challenged or changed, etc.) that I won't be able to process until I get home. And that's okay.
Finals two weeks ago went splendidly well; I got good grades in each of my classes, which was quite a relief. It's extremely difficult to try and do school work when you are surrounded by waterfalls, hiking trails, a game reserve, animals you don't get to see often (or at all) back home, and a 53-person community where something is always going on (i.e. soccer, rugby, movie nights). So finals ended about two weeks ago and we were all so stoked to be done (well, the nurses and Zulu students weren't done, but most of us were). Our sort of "spring break" was the rest of that week, which was a total blast!
Because it's somewhat difficult to take 53 students on a safari all at the same time, we were split into two groups where one would go on safari and the other would do other stuff back home, and then we would switch. I was on safari group #2 and am very grateful that it was so. My group had all the nursing students in it; a pretty rad bunch of people. They're a few years older than most of us so they are kind of like big sisters (and a big brother for the one male nursing major) to us.
On Tuesday night of that week something pretty radical happened to me. I attend a small group every Tuesday night with a bunch of college students, both from APU and from one of the churches that a lot of us go to. The message preached on was about destiny and God's plan for our lives, and in explaining how we can sometimes be disobedient to the things that God is calling us to do, the guy sharing gave the example of how he had felt led to pray for my foot (as I'd sprained it the week before and was on crutches) but ended up not doing it. When home group ended I was approached by a girl who asked to pray for my foot; I told her yes, and she did so, but nothing happened. A while later someone else approached me, asking if he could pray for my foot. I told him he could, and initially, nothing happened. The third time he prayed for my foot, however, I was overcome by the Holy Spirit and my foot started to tingle. I stood up, walked around, and even jumped on my foot with next-to-no pain! I was shaking, I was freaking out so much. I must admit, I've never been a direct part of a healing (whether praying for someone or being prayed for), so that only added to my freaking out. I ended up leaving home group that night without the need for crutches and haven't used them since. What a good God we serve!
On Wednesday, March 6, we went on the Karkloof Canopy Tour (zip-lining), which was lots of fun. One section of zipline had you going up to 50 mph; another was a straight drop and another took you over the entire canopy, giving you a view of the entire surrounding area. There were plenty of beautiful sights to be seen, that's for sure. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and had a movie night that night. We have a lot of those here, which I enjoy; I don't normally watch this many movies when I am home in the States.
On Thursday we went to Midmar Dam and spent the day playing volleyball, swimming, and had a brie (barbeque) dinner. It reminded me a lot of home, which is always refreshing.
Friday through Sunday of that week my group went on safari, meeting the other safari group only to swap places with them. We went on a drive that afternoon before dinner, though it was somewhat unpleasant due to the excessive heat and humidity. The vehicle I was in ran into a breeding herd of elephants and even got charged by one of them. They're very protective over their young, which makes sense considering they're in the womb for 22 months! We also saw many rhinos, giraffes, buffalo, impalas, and other creatures. To my surprise we ended up staying in luxurious tents, for lack of a better description. I didn't sleep much that first night due to the heat and humidity.
We drove around nearly the whole day Saturday, running into another breeding herd (getting charged again) and even ran into an elephant short of 10 feet away from us on our way to lunch. We turned a corner, I heard a gasp behind me, and next thing I knew to my left was an elephant right by us, charging our vehicle! Our driver, Reg (the director of our program), slowed down thinking that we saw something (which we definitely did!), but we shouted at him to keep driving and he sped off quickly, just in time for the elephant to miss us. It was a pretty traumatic experience. Hah. That same day we also saw a lioness (see the above picture), though she was a ways away. We were glad to have seen her though, 'cause we could have not seen her at all, and a safari without a lion sighting would just be tragic!
I slept much better the second night, considering the fact that that day (and night) it was cold, windy, and rainy. We drove around some more on Sunday, though not nearly as much as we had the previous days. We drove to a sort of lodge on the reserve where we had a delicious breakfast; I must say, we are pretty blessed in the things they do for us! All-in-all, safari was a great experience. Rhinos, giraffes, baboons, impalas, lions, elephants, and much more made the experience what it was. Check that one off the bucket list!
Last week we had our Community Engagement class from 8am to 4pm, Monday through Wednesday. The class itself was great but the length made it pretty difficult to sit through. I was really tired all last week too, having not slept on safari and staying up late for no good reason almost every night. Thursday we started at our service sites, which was the day we'd all been waiting for. I'm at a non-profit called RivLife (short for "River of Life") with 15 others from my team. We were split into four groups of four and would be alternating what we would be doing each day. But for that... I'll continue in the following post. :)
To be continued...
I must admit that I have been awful at blogging lately. Much has happened in the last several weeks since I blogged last. I guess I'm getting to a place where I want to be fully present and save the reflection for later, which is not usual for me considering how much I tend to self-reflect and externally process things. I'm coming to realize too though that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've learned that there are a lot of things about my time here in South Africa (experiences, ways in which I'm challenged or changed, etc.) that I won't be able to process until I get home. And that's okay.
Finals two weeks ago went splendidly well; I got good grades in each of my classes, which was quite a relief. It's extremely difficult to try and do school work when you are surrounded by waterfalls, hiking trails, a game reserve, animals you don't get to see often (or at all) back home, and a 53-person community where something is always going on (i.e. soccer, rugby, movie nights). So finals ended about two weeks ago and we were all so stoked to be done (well, the nurses and Zulu students weren't done, but most of us were). Our sort of "spring break" was the rest of that week, which was a total blast!
Because it's somewhat difficult to take 53 students on a safari all at the same time, we were split into two groups where one would go on safari and the other would do other stuff back home, and then we would switch. I was on safari group #2 and am very grateful that it was so. My group had all the nursing students in it; a pretty rad bunch of people. They're a few years older than most of us so they are kind of like big sisters (and a big brother for the one male nursing major) to us.
On Tuesday night of that week something pretty radical happened to me. I attend a small group every Tuesday night with a bunch of college students, both from APU and from one of the churches that a lot of us go to. The message preached on was about destiny and God's plan for our lives, and in explaining how we can sometimes be disobedient to the things that God is calling us to do, the guy sharing gave the example of how he had felt led to pray for my foot (as I'd sprained it the week before and was on crutches) but ended up not doing it. When home group ended I was approached by a girl who asked to pray for my foot; I told her yes, and she did so, but nothing happened. A while later someone else approached me, asking if he could pray for my foot. I told him he could, and initially, nothing happened. The third time he prayed for my foot, however, I was overcome by the Holy Spirit and my foot started to tingle. I stood up, walked around, and even jumped on my foot with next-to-no pain! I was shaking, I was freaking out so much. I must admit, I've never been a direct part of a healing (whether praying for someone or being prayed for), so that only added to my freaking out. I ended up leaving home group that night without the need for crutches and haven't used them since. What a good God we serve!
On Wednesday, March 6, we went on the Karkloof Canopy Tour (zip-lining), which was lots of fun. One section of zipline had you going up to 50 mph; another was a straight drop and another took you over the entire canopy, giving you a view of the entire surrounding area. There were plenty of beautiful sights to be seen, that's for sure. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and had a movie night that night. We have a lot of those here, which I enjoy; I don't normally watch this many movies when I am home in the States.
On Thursday we went to Midmar Dam and spent the day playing volleyball, swimming, and had a brie (barbeque) dinner. It reminded me a lot of home, which is always refreshing.
Friday through Sunday of that week my group went on safari, meeting the other safari group only to swap places with them. We went on a drive that afternoon before dinner, though it was somewhat unpleasant due to the excessive heat and humidity. The vehicle I was in ran into a breeding herd of elephants and even got charged by one of them. They're very protective over their young, which makes sense considering they're in the womb for 22 months! We also saw many rhinos, giraffes, buffalo, impalas, and other creatures. To my surprise we ended up staying in luxurious tents, for lack of a better description. I didn't sleep much that first night due to the heat and humidity.
We drove around nearly the whole day Saturday, running into another breeding herd (getting charged again) and even ran into an elephant short of 10 feet away from us on our way to lunch. We turned a corner, I heard a gasp behind me, and next thing I knew to my left was an elephant right by us, charging our vehicle! Our driver, Reg (the director of our program), slowed down thinking that we saw something (which we definitely did!), but we shouted at him to keep driving and he sped off quickly, just in time for the elephant to miss us. It was a pretty traumatic experience. Hah. That same day we also saw a lioness (see the above picture), though she was a ways away. We were glad to have seen her though, 'cause we could have not seen her at all, and a safari without a lion sighting would just be tragic!
Last week we had our Community Engagement class from 8am to 4pm, Monday through Wednesday. The class itself was great but the length made it pretty difficult to sit through. I was really tired all last week too, having not slept on safari and staying up late for no good reason almost every night. Thursday we started at our service sites, which was the day we'd all been waiting for. I'm at a non-profit called RivLife (short for "River of Life") with 15 others from my team. We were split into four groups of four and would be alternating what we would be doing each day. But for that... I'll continue in the following post. :)
To be continued...
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