Epilogue

After recovering for the past week, I thought it appropriate to make a final post. I started this whole thing with a comment about the Grand Canyon. Little did I know at that time how appropriate that would be. Between all of us on the trip, we took in excess of 6,000 pictures. After looking through most of them recently, they still only provide a glimpse. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I suppose I could go on quite a while with 6,000,000 words and still miss 90% of the trip.

Don'y worry - it's late and I just don't have it in me.

I will post three final pictures. Most work teams over the last year or so have painted a mural on the walls of the hallway commemorating their time at The Pines. Our team decided to do something a little different. Let me just say that it is always a good thing to have an artist on the team. Laura did a spectacular job with the map. Debbie and Josh completed much of the lettering. Most of the rest of us provided artistic insight (read - we felt free to point out where we thought it wasn't quite right). Have I said how much we enjoyed having Laura on the team?

Our mural, while it would likely have made him feel uneasy, is a tribute to David Seefried. But more than that - and knowing David I feel compelled to say this - it is a tribute to the God he served. Let us not look at The Pines and say "look at what David built," or "what a great man he was to sacrifice his life to do this." Rather, to truly honor David's memory, let us look at The Pines and say, as he did, "look at what God has done in this place," and "what great a God we must have for a man such as David to sacrifice his life to do this." It may only be a slight change in wording, but it is a complete change in perspective.

We just could not resist taking pictures of the clouds on our way from JFK to Rochester. What a great way to end such a spectacular trip.

Josh complained that if you looked at the pictures on the blog, you wouldn't know he was on the trip. So I thought I would post some proof. Some day he will make someone a good wife...

6-8

As we sit here in JFK after leaving The Pines 31 hours ago, I thought I would take a final opportunity to update the blog. We were quite busy on Friday cleaning everything up from the week, but not too busy to spend some serious time with the kids.

I don’t have to tell you that the hardest part of leaving was leaving them behind. At the beginning of the trip, we talked about how we were going to schedule in a side trip to a lion park. Honestly, by the time we got to Saturday, I don’t think most of us cared.

We did go and in the end it was a good thing because it did not allow for dragged out good-bye’s.

The general consensus is that the flight home was better than the one going. Perhaps the first flight helped us prepare mentally; perhaps it is because our perspective about comfort has changed.

We are glad to be home, but we truly left a part of ourselves in South Africa. The picture includes all the kids except Boetie Boet. I have one of just him from the morning we left. I did get him to smile, and he said “yes” when I told him he would be bigger when we next saw him. Made my trip.

6-5

The day started at 18 degrees.  No, that’s not Celsius.  So it is only fitting that we had ice cream with the kids when they came home from school.

In the afternoon, a few of us went to “Number 7”, a squatters’ village about a mile away, to deliver some toys and clothes, including the shirt literally off of Joe’s back.

I have heard many times that we in America do not know poverty.  Now I know what they meant.  I was thinking as we were driving away, that the amount of money I spent on the camera so I could take these pictures could likely feed the whole village for months, maybe a whole year.

Not that I think we should all stop buying things and send all our money to people such as these.  What I would hope would change is our thinking when we are tempted to be dissatisfied with what we have.  When we start feeling sorry for ourselves, we should stop and consider why we were born into such relative affluence and others into abject poverty.  It is not a question we can readily answer beyond God’s sovereignty.

Let me be clear; wanting things is not a sin.  Having things is not a sin.  Obsessing about things is.  Placing the acquisition of things as our top priority is.  And thinking that somehow our worth is linked to the things we have is.

Afterwards, a few of us were dropped off at House of Hope, a temporary orphanage from which kids may be adopted.  One of the babies is the sister of one of the girls here and is from Number 7.  They loved the attention and we were all sorry to have to leave.  They cried.

It seems everywhere we turn, there is more to do, more that need help.  Debbie even said today that aside from the space issue (they can’t accommodate more that 3 or 4), one of the main reasons she didn’t go to House of Hope was because she wasn’t sure how much more heartache she could take.  I think she speaks for more than just herself.

We just have to keep focusing on our drop and let God worry about the bucket.

6-4

Today was fencing.  OK, not exactly.  We finished putting up a fence for the school at Reohola, a housing complex where we have been going to church.  Quite a few of the kids from the neighborhood have been coming regularly, so it was good to be able to do something for them.

We began with rubbish patrol!  In just a small area where the kids already play, we picked up several garbage cans full of trash, broken glass, rusty metal.

We also cleaned the area where we usually park for church.  It is hard to see, but there is a ton of garbage and especially broken glass.  Many of the residents drown their problems in alcohol.  Not so unlike at home.  And the result is the same – it is the kids that suffer.

The entrance to church – it doubles as a school/daycare during the week.

A true union job.

When we were done, it didn’t seem all that big, but the teacher was thrilled because she could let the kids out and not have to worry so much about them wandering off.

Even Pastor George joined us to finish the job.  Pastor George has a huge heart.  He is from Christ Church and volunteers to preach every Sunday in Reohola so they don’t have to travel for church.  Transportation would be a huge barrier and he wants to remove that for them.  We don’t get too many adults.  In fact often the service is interrupted by loud music from those who would rather we not be there.  But there are a number of the kids and in that we hope.

6-3

Today was another hard day.  We took a side trip to the pediatric ward at the hospital.  It is probably a good thing that we could not take pictures.  The hardest one to see was born November 29, 2007 and looked to be maybe 4 pounds.  Without describing details, he is clearly not well.  It is an image I will not soon forget.

What made it so hard was not simply to see such a little one struggle, or to see the conditions in which he lives, or even to wonder how much better he might be doing if he were to receive care in the US.  The hardest part for us is to consider that, but for the grace of God, that could have been Colin.  Some times God’s sovereignty seems unfair.

6-2

Today we had fires, but not the ones we expected to be setting around the stumps. Unfortunately, it looks like due to the unseasonable rain we have had, we will not be able to burn the stumps. Today’s fires appear to have been set and were in the grass all around The Pines. Praise God the winds were such that it never jumped the road.

At sunset we took a trip to the mine dump. It is a huge pile of waste from the process of extracting gold. I would bet it is a mile across.

We made it to the top just in time to miss the sunset, but it was still worth the trip.

It was a bit dark getting down…

After dinner, Meredith entertained the troops.

5-31

Today included a trip through town, to the shack village, the cemetery and the dump. We are reminded once again of the tremendous dichotomy of this place.