Monday, September 12, 2011

Late this afternoon, Alana and I sat on the back step enjoying the damp breeze that came through the sprinklers. Pastor Franz loves to garden, so some new grass along with the requisite weeds, greens the space just below the steps. Beyond he's planted a large garden. A little to the side, there's a bed of strawberries. And, just toward the back of the property are the hoops of a donated greenhouse which he and Leonard will cover Wednesday.

And, if you look at the photo, just beyond the greenhouse hoops and across the fence, you'll see piles of rubble. Zama Zamas dug up the old railroad track and sold the scrap.

In Timbuktu, Carmichaels served at the Living Water Project, designed to provide Tuaregs a place to grow food for consumption and for profit, hoping this semi-nomadic people would settle in one spot long enough to hear of and yearn for Jesus. Seeing trees and gardens rise up out of the desert is an amazing thing.

The Pines, too, is an oasis in a very barren place. One drives past skeletal remains of mine shafts and buildings. Cattle roam through dry grass and across broken roads. Miles of mine tailings dominate the horizon. Then the car sweeps around the corner and enters the gate to life and vitality and laughter and shouts.

There are kids here at The Pines who were destined to die young, or become prostitutes, or get killed in the streets of Thabong, if they had not been rescued. But, they are just like other kids. They go to school, complain about and avoid homework, sneak extra fruit, skip doing their chores, need to be corrected for lying, and give great hugs.

And the Zama Zamas are no more unsaved than Michelle, who came here extremely small for her age, sick and malnourished but now is strong enough to argue with anyone and sings with some of the big girls in The Pines Choir. But, I don't know how you reach the Zama Zamas, who hold an automatic rifle between you and them. The kids we can get to. No matter how desperately men search for gold and pleasure just outside the fence, here, in this place, God is at work.

Today Alana and I shopped for groceries. Don and Dave finished the closets in the houseparents' rooms and started on cubbies for the kids. More summer clothes were handed out and winter things put back in the clothes storage safe. Sally took time to see the work that's been accomplished. And, all of that serves to draw these precious lambs into the fold.

Judy