Lost in Faith

January 21

Seaview Church resides in the middle of Seaview Scatters Camp.  Unlike a Township which is a sanctioned housing area, a scatters camp is a unsanctioned housing area.  You first noticed that its standard of living is below the Townships.  At least the construction of the homes are substandard by any stretch of imagination.

The church building stands out like a sore thumb.  A mental box with few windows for ventilation that resides among shacks made of whatever someone could find to tie together.  Attendance was low that day due to the celebration of the Xhosa Bible.  On that day in the 1800s the Xhosa Bible was delivered to the Xhosa people for the first time.  Everyone went to some large celebration outside of Seaview.

There was a guest pastor that day who had been invited to speak.  Mama Gladys decided to suggest in the middle of the service that I should be invited to speak.  I am thinking, where’s the drama, where’s the media, where’s the band.  My usual back up was not there and I felt naked.  But I obliged and used Luke 15 to challenge them to become a “come as you are church.”  Sadly in my short time in SA I found the church to be surprisingly self righteous and in tolerant.

It was hot and I was short!  We brought food for everyone so despite the boring white guy speaking everyone went home satisfied because Mama Gladys always brings food.

That afternoon we went travel what seemed like a galaxy away.  After a quick change and rearranging of kids, we leave Oceans of Mercy and headed to the Boardwalk.  Seaview and the Boardwalk are two realities that can’t coexist.  Boardwalk is a quaint modern outdoor shopping area complete with fish pond in the middle.  All the fast food your arteries could want and street vendors selling everything Africa!

A couple of hours haggling with vendors and strolling through the endless booths filled alternately with cell phone holsters and Africa carvings.  Knowing that I must bring something home for everyone in my immediate family I scoured the universe of vendors to find that special something.  Needless to say they got something African!  My hope was that the tags that said made in China weren’t affixed when I handed it to them.

January 22

We didn’t leave until 2 pm so we spent the morning with Mama Gladys checking on beads and material to make necklaces.  We are dreaming of creating a economic opportunity for the women of the Transkei.

The highlight of our last day was filming Mama Gladys telling her story.  It is not hard to connect her passion for the kids today when you hear how hard her childhood was.  In her short 50 plus years she has had to scratch for every thing she has and God has blessed her desire to give whatever she has away.  She is a dangerously infectious person.  Our lives will never be the same because of her.

Turn in the rental car, check bags, and wait.  Typical travel issues awaited us.  We had a 4 hour layover in Jo’berg so we weren’t concerned about the tardiness of our first flight.  We took off and once again I strained to see the Dark Continent below me.  I knew that Victoria Falls would be in the distance as we approached Jo’berg but the atomphere wasn’t cooperating and I saw nothing but beautiful cloud formations.

Jo’berg Airport was a shoppers dream.  Lots of duty free shops to spend your last Rands.  I found a St. Augustine red wine that I had enough money to snatch only to find out I could take wine on the plane!  Foiled again!

We boarded with a thorough search of our carry on items.  South African Airlines is a delightful host.  Once on board and settle you can play with you personal video screen.  On take off you have two channels on your personal video screen.  Channel two is a camera on the nose of the plane and channel four is a camera mounted in the tail of the plane.  This creates a takeoff and landing that makes aviators drool.

The flight home is against the jet stream so the ability to fly non stop vanishes.  Dakar, Senegal serves as a refueling point.  Half way home you set down on the western tip of Africa.  Refueling is the easy part.  The security laws of the US require that the plane be re-inspected. 

The order comes from the pilot to collect your carry on luggage and place it near you.  An army of security agents begin inspecting every empty seat.  It took an hour before we were giving the all clear to put our bags back and sit back down. 

The engines roar and we lunge off of Africa over the Atlantic Ocean bound for the US.  9 hours later we are landing in Washington DC at Dulles International Airport.  Our flight took longer than scheduled so we are in a race to make our connections.  Baggage Agents and Custom’s officials are not very sympathetic to flight schedules.  We hustle our way thru and get to our gate only to discover that our connecting flight is late as well. 

Two and one half hours later we touch down at KCI.  It’s winter here, summer in South Africa.  A shock to our system but so was the reentry into our culture that is so unique to planet.

South Africa is forever etched in our hearts.  Now the struggle is to figure out how we can make a difference in a place so desperate for our help.