November 2018 – More Blessed to Give than Receive

Beth and I are enjoying our time back in South Africa again. We are just finishing with a large team from Lutheran Church of Hope-Ankeny. We often say to each other that the current team is the best one that we have ever had but the last 2 weeks have been an incredible adventure for each and every team member. Sitting around our African camp fire we witnessed amazing spiritual and emotional growth in the lives of the people who came all this way to serve our beautiful children in Africa. We always expect the lives of the children we serve to be impacted and that always seems to happen. What many people don’t expect is what happens in the lives of the missionaries who come to serve with us.  On the team’s first evening with us, I told them that they were on the threshold of an incredible journey. Now, near the end of their time with us here in Africa, I am sure that they all agree that their lives will never be the same again.

We started the week with Pastor Scott Rains preaching in a public high school to 800 children. He spoke only about 20 minutes and the children were focusing on every word that he said. There were no cell phones out, no talking to each other, but they were honoring him by listening to everything he had to say. The principal in this school is a good Christian man and he specifically asked us to bring our team into the school to pray individually for every one of the senior students who would be taking their graduation exams the next day. The children here seem to believe in prayer much more that most of us in America. It is critical for the student to do well on their exams. They determine which students get to graduate, go on to college and who will receive scholarships. The students get quite nervous as the day of the exams approaches and that anxiety often impairs their ability to do their best. I could sense a definite peace and tranquility after each individual student was prayed for by our team. Many on our team had never prayed out loud for another individual, so it was an amazing experience both for the Americans and our African children.

Later in the week we did an optical outreach and tested the vision of 350 students and gave glasses to about 50 of them. This was a rural and extremely impoverished school. After we worked several hours serving the children, we met with the head master of the school. We could all easily tell how much he loved the children of this school. It was obvious that he was a good, godly man but he told us that he was getting so discouraged with the great need and limited resources available for him to help these children. Several of the children were from child-led homes and they would become tearful telling us that there was not enough food in their homes. They were embarrassed by the tattered condition of their school uniforms. The principal became overcome with tears as he expressed his gratitude for our team being there to assist his students. He was so discouraged that he was thinking of resigning, but now he seems much more hopeful. This team has pledged to raise funds for us to sew new school uniforms for the most impoverished children at this school. We will also be going back to this community to help with food issues.

There are so many other stories from this team that I would love to share but the general gist of it all is that when you travel half way around the world to help children who will never be able to repay you, it brings amazing joy into the hearts of everyone on the team. It is definitely better to give than receive.