Proud to Serve

Well it's evident I was not very successful in my goal of blogging daily. We have had challenges with internet connection. However my experience has been rich enough to fill out a few blogs. I will be dedicating a few more of my blogs even after I return to the blessings we have received while here in Southern Africa.

This past week has been spent doing quite a bit of traveling. We moved from Hazy View to Johannesburg (a 6 hour bus ride) on Monday. On Tuesday we traveled from Jo'burg to Ficksburg (another 6 hour ride) right on the border of South Africa.

Wednesday and Thursday we crossed over into the Kingdom of Lesotho, a country that is completely surrounded by the country of South Africa. There we visited the Maluti Hospital and the Maluti Adventist Christian School. I'll be writing about the wonderful ministry being done here later. For this blog allow me to recap something from last week.

Last Thursday I wrote about our visit to the Khomelela Community Services Project. We had a wonderful opportunity to see the dream of Pastor Paul Mawela and his wife Martha, come to reality. Pastor Mawela had retired from official church work and decided to move to Dwarsaloop to start a church among his people. He was met with resistance and all his efforts were thwarted. The Lord led him to begin ministering to the community through addressing the needs that arose due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

At the Khomelela Community Service Project we saw some great ministries taking place. The community asked them to start a preschool program. One of the reasons for to provide a place for teenage mothers to drop their children off so that they can go to school and complete their education.

I was particularly impressed with the care giver ministry that is operated out of Khomelela (it means "Hold On"). They go out and assist refugees from neighboring Mozambique and the elderly who need food and other services. Without them these people would be forgotten. We traveled with two care givers - Yvonne and Tinswello.

These ladies blew us away when they told us the sacrifices they were making for this ministry. Tinswello travels 2.5 hours one way by foot to come to the center arriving each day at 8 am. She then goes out to see her clients and ends her work at 4 pm. She does not arrive home until 6:30 pm or 7. In addition she is presently doing this work voluntarily. There's more. She was not complaining about her work or travel or lack of pay. She was excited and smiling. Here are her words. "I'm proud to serve others." She takes pride in knowing that she helps others. She was recruited because they were looking for people who wanted to help others. It is a badge of honor and a source of pride that she can minister to the needs of others.

How wonderful it is that the motivation for service is service itself? If we could all realize that being able to help others is not a burden but an honor.

We have been blessed to meet such wonderful agents of the love of Christ here. I pray that I would be able to say like her, I'm proud to serve others.