Townships and Philosophical Ramblings, September 16, 2011

My sisters keep me honest. Joy's question showed an area needing explanation. It's kind of hard to explain Thabong. It is called a township, but is like a small city. The roots are in Apartheid, when the ruling whites established separate areas where the black must live. The streets and housing are significantly lower in standards than the rest of Welkom. I think blacks can live in other parts of the city today, at least on the face of it. But, the Thabongs of this country have become their home place. Often black Africans with good jobs choose to live in the townships. It's where their culture and community are centered. Worship in the Thabong Baptist Church is distinctively black African.

You will seldom see the kind of poor living conditions elsewhere that you see in the townships. I know electricity must be prepaid. And, in much of the township there is only water at a common faucet. There are some nicer places where people keep a little yard, but certainly nothing is fancy. Most of the streets are dirt, potholed and dusty. All over South Africa, well Africa, but especially in the townships, a lot of people are walking everywhere. Odd little containers and shanties house shops. Men sit outside their shacks on stools, having a beer together. Women scrub their laundry in tubs outside the door, hanging things on a clothesline.

I've written from my memories of two years ago, as well as our drive to church last Sunday. Tomorrow we will see Thabong through Pastor Manaka's eyes. I may have to print a retraction. Then, too, Sally and the Carmichaels receive these updates. This may destroy my credibility in their eyes.

And then, sister Kathy's remarks about our strong interest in the ministry here in Welkom lead me to ramble a bit about our perspective on ministry and this place of love and hope. If you've had enough of my verbiage, hit delete. If you can tolerate a little more, read on.

Increasingly over the years I've been impressed with the application of the "To whom much is given, much is required" principle, knowing that we feel generous when we give 10% of our net income.

Went looking for a quote from R. G. LeTourneau and found this in a really good essay by Randy Alcorn. (http://www.surfinthespirit.com/finances/giving.html) He directs it pretty much at material goods and funds, but I've been impressed with the need to apply it to talents and education and time. "R.G. LeTourneau was an example of a man who understood God's purpose for blessing him financially. An inventor of earthmoving machines, LeTourneau reached the point of giving 90 percent of his income to the Lord. As he put it, "I shovel out the money, and God shovels it back to me - but God has a bigger shovel."

Don and I have wide ranging interests in missions around the world, which may be attributable in part to my wanderlust coupled with wonderlust, but this work is one that really moves and motivates us. Being fundamentally farmers and Dutch, we can see that the staff at The Pines use all they have as completely as possible and do an effective work on a bare bones budget. They are hard working and thrifty. Having ministered in a small, underfunded, and effective Christian school for decades, we realize the struggle it is to work faithfully when everything is always hard. There are no charismatic and high-profile people out there drumming up support -- just ordinary, decent people like you and me trying to do what is right before God. Our Lord does not need our abilities. If we make ourselves 'available', He supplies the 'able.' We appreciate the work of the ministry as we see it being accomplished in this place and consider it a privilege to come along side.

All the goals that Phil set for Don and Dave have been met. Of course, there are always add-ons, so they will try and get few more things finished tomorrow afternoon. We are excited to walk through those rooms and imagine the shouts of children echoing.

And, Dave fell in love with an African girl. Getting on that plane in Jo-burg for that epic trek home will be that much harder...

Judy