WUMC News Briefs

I want to drink deeply from each day and each experience and not miss the essence of each encounter, so not to stumble through life in a stupor.

I want to wake up and experience the realness of emotions both mine and others without being consumed by worry and anxiety,

I want to be able to trust in God’s blessings each day and not turn away from the potential of each minute,

I want to drink deeply from each day,

Settle me down O Holy Spirit,

Refresh me, guide me, hold me

This poem sums up my feelings about how I approached the trip to South Africa. I wanted to remind myself to listen to God in the everyday experiences I was having. I can get caught up in getting the task at hand done, obsessed on finishing, and in the meantime miss out on connecting with others.

The schedule we followed each day was helpful for me in remembering to listen: we woke up at 6:30 a.m. and ate breakfast, met for devotions, then drove out to the site, Hartebeeskop, and would greet the workers, then get to work. The first few days I helped smooth concrete and attached sheets to the roof. Then at 10 a.m. we stopped for tea and sandwiches. Then back to work until lunch. The women of the church prepared us a feast every day, and we ate together in gratitude for the delicious meal. We worked until 4 or 5, depending on the weather, than drove back to our home away from home, and took showers, ate dinner, and then read or wrote in our journals, or went to soak in the hot mineral pools, and then to bed about 10 p.m.

I made frequent breaks, saying to the other team members, “I’m not used to all this physical labor, day after day!” When I say team, I am not just referring to those of us from the U.S., not just the paid workers hired from townships in South Africa, but all the volunteers who came and spent one hour, or two, some who worked all week and would come and work on the weekend with us.

There was Moses, who is a minister who like the old Circuit Riders is the pastor in charge, along with another ordained pastor, of 50 churches in Swaziland. Moses put on overalls and was helping lay brick even with all that he had to do. And then there were the women, who faithfully provided us with food every day. There was a youth pastor, Bricks, who made sure we had Dawga, the concrete mixture that held the brick in place. And there was Joseph, who was a lay preacher and our Master Mason, who taught us how to properly butter the brick, that is, to put mortar on the brick so that it could be placed in the wall properly and be level.

All these people came together, amidst our diverse talents and abilities, white and black, Californians, and those from Wisconsin, Wyoming, Washington State, South Africans. Our youngest was 16 years old, the oldest 86, both men and women, conservative Republicans, and liberal Democrats.

We build a church together, Brick by Brick. Each one finding a way to be part of the team, working side by side, never knowing what the new day will bring. It is a life we have not chosen, it has chosen us. And we are blessed to receive the grace of each day, basking in the glory of friendship and love. May we once again rise this morning with the sun and discover the secret contained in the new dawning.

At the site we experienced an abundance of God’s love shining down on us, moving through us, and it was a great experience.

But although we were having this wonderful experience, there were reminders of the problems that South Africa faces. Daily, we passed people who live in mud and wood structures, with no running water, poor sanitation, and a high unemployment rate. On the weekends, we passed funeral processions, and I talked to a Roman Catholic priest who averages 2 funerals a week of people between the age of 20–30 who have died from AIDS, but he said, his colleagues in the city average 20–30 funerals a weekend. Poverty threatens the physical and mental well being of millions of people, and unemployment is as high as 80% in some areas. This includes communities such as Spring, a metropolitan city that has become integrated since the country was free from Apartheid, but crime is on the rise. Reverend Brian Jennings, who I have known since he was here in the states back in the early ’90s, serving First Church Pasadena and Sage Granada Park Church in Alhambra as he worked on a doctorate at Fuller Seminary, talked about some of the issues his congregation faces. He told us about a couple who had come to see him, to tell him of their experience the night before, of being awakened by the lights in their bedroom coming on at 2 a.m., with gun-toting youths demanding their money and valuables. Or of another couple whose daughter was driving home from work when she was hijacked, but they were grateful because she might just as easily been murdered or raped, or both. In the face of such overwhelming violence, the church has become the one place to find hope because as we have heard, God is the one who rescued the slaves from Egypt, God is the one who fed them in the desert, God is the one who led them through Moses to the promised land. And now, God feeds all those who listen, with abundance, even in ways that seem impossible. How can honey come from a rock? How? Because in God, all things are possible, even the seemingly impossible. In the words of one of those who helped work on the church, “We thank God who sent people like you to Hartesbeeskop. We thank you to do your best, and God will do the rest, We love you!” Yes we face our own problems here in the United States. We are far too familiar with gang violence, drug addiction, child abuse, and HIV/AIDS. These issues test our faith and our hope. But, maybe that is not all bad, perhaps these issues, like the big bad wolf, perhaps they huff and puff to see if our faith is solid and secure. And like a church of bricks, not superficial and unsupported like a house of sticks.

Let us not underestimate our witness to our faith, even if we do not go to South Africa, we are part of God’s team. A team where there is a place for everyone, there is room for you in this world of hurt, out there, waiting for you to follow God’s call. You do not have to have all the right words to say, you do not have to be a master mason – all you have to do is believe, with God, all things are possible. Amen.