Recently we had the huge privilege of being invited to a project managers workshop held at the Baptist Convention of South Africa (BCSA) offices in Johannesburg. We were invited to go with the manager of the Jehovah Jireh orphanage where we help out, along with managers and representatives from about 10-15 other projects linked with the BCSA, which are either HIV/Aids awareness/care projects or daycare/drop-in/orphanage centres.
These individual’s lives spoke volumes of God’s love as we heard about not only the great work their projects are involved in, but how hardworking and dedicated these people were to serving their community. Many were working over eight-hour days, five days a week with little or no payment. We heard of some volunteers walking over ten kilometres to each patient they visited with no transport or umbrellas to protect them from the blazing heat or torrential rain! We were all truly humbled by their servant-hearted attitude and sacrificial nature as they took joy in surrendering their lives to others in their community with the only motivation of glorifying Jesus Christ. This is a lesson which we pray we may continue to learn from and be challenged by.
On our journey back from our time spent at the BCSA in Johannesburg we passed through Pretoria. As usual, there were people selling various items along the roadside and at traffic lights. One guy came up to our BCSA minibus window selling ice pops, and as it was pretty hot and a long journey home, Barney got two. Seeing this, the rest of the team each asked for one. The man threw the ice pops through the window whilst Barney tried to find the extra money, unfortunately at which point the traffic lights turned green. Abram (our friend who was driving us back) hadn’t noticed what we were up to so started driving off. The man started running after us, as we shouted to a very surprised Abram to pull over. After about half a block he finally understood what we were saying and pulled over whilst the man caught up with us! Fortunately he too saw the funny side, as otherwise we could just imagine the headlines of the local newspaper: ‘Baptists steal from innocent street merchant’!