Mzomomhle...DAY ONE!!!

Today was one of those days that can only have been the result of much prayer.  It couldn't have gone better.  God was in the big picture and in the details.  It was a day made of moments stitched together by sacrifice, love, and prayer.  First of all we were blessed with a beautiful, warm sunny day.  To say the team was in high spirits would be an understatement.  We began the day with the welcoming ceremony at the school.  The sight of 800 Xhosa children singing to welcome us was enough to get the day started with a good amount of happy (and relieved) tears.  We were so warmly welcomed by the community leaders and the teachers and staff.

We had the clinic up and running by 11 or so, and from then on it was full steam ahead for that awesome crew.  We've decided to focus on quality rather than quantity, so each person is spending time praying and loving each patient. I wasn't in the clinic much so I'll let them tell their own story in another post, but they all looked beyond happy each time I stuck my head in.

We learned of a heartbreaking fact early this morning.  I haven't had time to fact check, but it seems to be true on some level.  Two of the teachers met with Beth and I to tell us that many of the older grade girls at the school are prostituting themselves.  We know several of those girls, and it was hard news to hear and process.  Hunger leads to desperation.  Many of them are orphans. We do not judge. We know the problem is too large to tackle in a week but we have a plan to try and help a few of them, those who are showing initiative in school and who want to turn from that life.  Watch this space and please pray for this latest addition to our mission this week.

The school team also had a winner of a day, but again, I'll let them tell their story in their own words. We caught up with them this afternoon at a daycare for orphans located in the squatter camp;  it was a beautiful thing to see some of the lovely young ladies on that team with beaming orphans hanging all over them.  Our team was so kind, gentle, and loving with the children, giving them the type of attention they've probably never  experienced.

The "Rugby Team" as we've come to be known had a day of major excitement.  The core Rugby Team consists of Jody, Chris K, David (our pastor), Vusumzi, and me.  We were joined this afternoon by Chris E, Kirk, and Amber.  As we were about to leave the clinic to start our home visits a woman came and asked if we could come to her house to see her daughter who was too sick to come to  the clinic.  We grabbed Amber (none of the rest of us are medical) and headed out.  What we found was heartbreaking.  A young girl of 18, was lying half naked on a filthy blanket in the dirt between two shacks.  Her family told us that she'd been recently diagnosed (HIV) and that she had TB.  She was severely dehydrated and malnourished, and her heart rate was through the roof.  Amber felt that she needed to be taken to the hospital quickly so we made a quick plan and split the team.  I thought I'd try my hand at driving (other side of the road here) this year.  Little did I know I'd be hurtling a dangerously ill girl through the streets of East London lying on a table cloth on the back seat.  We had to wear masks in the car (her TB was really contagious, Ana I know you'd be proud!).  When we got to the government hospital they took one look at our masks and whisked her away onto a stretcher.  Please pray for her, she's a sick girl.  She couldn't speak so we didn't get her name, lets call her Janie.  We'll go to see her family tomorrow.

While we were doing that the rest of the Rugby Team was having an experience that was really the event of our day.  I know you all like a cliffhanger, so check back soon for that story which Jody will post. Really, it's a phenomenal story...good stuff!

So, we are all happy, we are all healthy, we are all still really enjoying each other :), our hosts, and the mission.  God has been so good to open up the week with a BIG day in each of our lives.  Please keep praying that we continue to see much fruit as the week progresses.  Although with our human eyes we see much pain and sadness in this place, we know that we serve a God of hope, and that his hope isn't just for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere.  I think God's heart must break when he looks down, and sees the starving orphan, the teenage prostitute, or the ten year old drug addict. I just pray that some of what he's allowing us to do will touch many lives here and for eternity.

Christ has no body on earth but yours,

No hands but yours, no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which Christ's

compassion for the world is to look out.

Yours are the feet with which he is to go

about doing good; and yours are the hands 

with which he is to bless us now.

                               St Teresa of Avila.

ps...pictures tomorrow, promise!