Some of the questions we’ll discuss are now posted in the forum… if you have time, check them out in advance and formulate some thoughts.  But remember… the chat Sunday evening is in the Chat Room, not the forums.

If you have thoughts about these questions or new questions after the chat, or if you can’t participate in the chat, post to this forum topic throughout the week.  “See” you in the chat Sunday evening…

Our Red Letters book study starts this sunday at 8:30pm on our chat page.  We’ll have some questions to spur conversation, but please add your own Sunday.  Contact us if you have any questions about the chat page or the book study.

To continue my theme of lacking focus, some additional stuff:

Don is home, but Jenny and I have not heard from him or Barbra - we plan to get together tomorrow evening to talk about the trip and how we’ll move forward from here.

Since I can’t have a post without trying to spur thought and conversation with something philosophical, I’ll leave you with lyrics from The Chior’s classic song Consider… discuss among yourselves.

Consider your laughter…
Consider My tears…
Consider My love…
Consider your fear.

Consider your heart.

Really consider each of those lines for a moment or two, then consider the lines and paragraphs together.  I could write an entire book about what these lyrics speak to me.  Choir lyrics are a close second to Pensees in thought provocation.  If you don’t know about The Choir, you really must buy Circle Slide, Chase the Kangaroo, and Wide-Eyed Wonder… really.

We’re not sure if Don will be able to post again until his return from Swaziland.  To keep the flow of information from the trip going, I’ve copied a post from Bob Mudd, another member of the team on this trip.  We are all very eager to get to talk to Don in person about this trip, but this is good and will have to do for now.

Team Update
Over the past 5 days we have had one compelling opportunity followed by another.  The team that has been lead on this trip to Swaziland is strategic, prayerful and ready to take ownership for their part in the ministry here.  It has been a pleasure to serve alongside this team.

‘Devote’ does not notate simply a spirit of compassion or feelings of sorrow for those in need, it compels one to action that is not contained in a ‘day of service’ but rather a commitment to living a life that holds others as more valuable than yourself and results in your life of charity and sacrifice sustainably meeting the needs of those in pain.  This happens one life at a time.  Do something now!  God is bigger than the statistics.

Yesterday afternoon we split our team into three groups and did one home visit each.  Pastor Gift had a list of people he wanted to receive a visit.  We also brought a two week supply of food with us to leave as a gift after the visit.  We were given some basic instructions on how a Swazi visit would likely flow.

We had an interpreter named Neli.  We met Frola at her home.  She is 70 years old and has been a believer since she was young.  She has lived in the area all her life.

Her home is humble (picture below).  She lives in a 14x10ft home with nine of her grand children that range in age from 23 to 2.  All seven of her children are dead, most likely from AIDS.  Her mother is still alive, but she was raised by her Go-go.

She talked about how hard life is, that she suffers, and she prays to God to take her life.  During our conversations, she laughed alot, and said some funny things.  She was so excited for us to visit with her.  We were honored to be with her too.

We prayed for the sickness to leave her body, and I felt words appropriate for her are her reward in heaven will be huge.

She had not seen the food we brought with us, so as we were leaving, we gave her the food, and she cried more, and praised God for answering her prayer as she had not eaten in three days.

God bless this lovely woman, first because you love her and because she takes wonderful care of her grandchildren.

Go-go Frola in the center, CW from left: Nelly (interpreter), Don, Josh, Joan, and four of Frola’s grandchildren.

We happened to stop by a lunch place in a market place in Matata that has good internet service.  So I will share with everyone a picture or two from two carepoints we visited this morning.

We were able to visit a “Mountain carepoint” this morning.  It is not one of the two we heard about that are in really bad shape, but this is a small carepoint down a muddy road that exists somewhere in between the main road and the Mountains.  It is within walking distance of the South African border on the South Eastern border of Swaziland.  The kids here are young, and the parents leave them at home by themselves while they work from 5am to 5pm.  Keep in mind 1 to 2 hours time one way added in for walking to and fro.  Because the homes are so spread out in this part of the country, the children are literally by themselves when their mother leaves for work.  Pastor Gift who started this carepoint recently found some Go-gos to get this carepoint running again, and currently support about 60 children with one meal per day.  The children here are very quiet and shy.  The lack of nurturing is quite evident.  But a group of girls on an AIM mission trip for 3 months have been visiting this place regularly for eight weeks, and it is starting to make a difference.  A little girl let me hold her, but her responsiveness was very very minimal for understandable reasons.  This carepoint is available for a community partner.

Shy Sweet Sweet Little Girl from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

The members of the team had a great meeting last night to discuss each persons feelings and potential carepoint selections.  Everyone wants to finish the trip before making a final choice.  The target date for final selections is November 30th, but I have mentioned that our group will likely be ready to select a carepoint and get started as soon as possible on the paperwork.  The initial step is to gather profile information on each child coming to the carepoint for meals on a regular basis.  It can take a month or two to get this done.  Once completed, we can get started on capital projects.  For most of the carepoints, we need to start with a fence, kitchen and well.  You don’t do anything without a fence in Africa.  A kitchen helps with storage and feeding especially on rainy days.  Based on economics of drilling wells here, they are drilled three at a time.  When a well gets completed depends on when three wells are funded on the list.

Quick fact.  They did AIDS testing at the clinic at an Nsoko care point and found 90% infection rate.

This afternoon we are planning to split into three groups and do home visits with people who live near Pastor Gift in Nsoko.

Ok, I’ve been told I jumped in too fast with Pensee #1.  I’ll give a bit more explanation on the Pensees and a more straightforward one this week.  Obviously, the real business we’re about this week is Don’s trip.  If you’re here for Don’s posts this week from Swaziland, just scroll on past this.  But humor me while we wait for Don to post something new.  These are really fun - they make me think.

Pascal intended to compile his Pensees (thoughts) into an argument supporting God’s existence and Christianity as the religion that accurately reveals God to the world.  He died before compiling the Pensees into the form of a book, but categorized them into broad groups with the intend of attempting to formulate his argument by making observations about the nature of man and the world.  Major themes are:  order (structure) in the natural world, man’s lost state apart from God (especially vanity, wretchedness, and boredom), the potential for greatness in man, contradictions in man’s nature, and finally a transition from knowing man’s nature to knowing God.

Thus many of his thoughts are very dark and seem despairing… remember that in these thoughts he is attempting to show our frailty and wretchedness apart from God.  He has an equal number of thoughts about our potential for greatness through God’s redemption.  In fact, this contradiction in our nature – wretchedness, with the potential for greatness – is probably the most important theme in the Pensees.  So don’t write off the bleak and despairing thoughts too quickly, but consider them in light of the contrast with our redeemed state as a part of the body of Christ.

So, with that explanation fresh in our minds, let’s think about one that highlights Pascal’s thoughts on this contradiction in our nature… here it is:

Is it not clear that man’s condition is dual? The point is that if man had never been corrupted, he would, in his innocence, confidently enjoy both truth and happiness, and if man had never been anything but corrupt, he would have no idea of either truth or bliss.  But unhappy as we are (and we should be less so if there were no element of greatness in our condition) we have an idea of happiness but we cannot obtain it.  We perceive an image of the truth yet possess nothing but falsehood, being equally incapable of absolute ignorance and certain knowledge; so obvious is it that we once enjoyed a degree of perfection from which we have unhappily fallen.

This one will help you know where he’s going when I get into the darker ones highlighting our fallen condition apart from God.  Comments?  Questions?  Disagreements?  This one is out of order and I’m violating the genius of Pascal’s approach; which is to studiously avoid stating the argument or giving any idea where he is even going until he’s made enough insightful observations and thoughts that you agree with his conclusion before you even know he’s making an argument.  This is fun for me, so I’m going to keep posting these – you’ll start to get the feel for them but I really would like your thoughts on them over time, even if those thoughts are: “what in the world does that mean?”

Today we visited Mahlabaneni carepoint, and participated in a Christmas party with the kids.  Nearly 200 kids showed up for the party today.  The pots of food did not look big enough for everyone to have enough, but everyone received a heaping helping, and everyone was served (heard this fishes and loaves story before?).  They start now with Christmas parties since they throw several more parties for combinations of carepoints to include all in the area.  We brought soccer balls, a jumping gym, crayons and paper, and special food (meat, oranges, candy).  This was the longest period of time we have spent at a carepoint.  It was great to be more relaxed and spend time relating with the kids.  More holding little ones, camera fun, games, food, treats, and hanging out with some fine young gentlemen, but the standout today was watching the Discipleship trainers (a.k.a. D-team) work with the kids.  There are two young men and three young ladies on the D-team today.  Mousa is an outstanding leader.  Watching him work is amazing (see video below).  He is so gifted at health training, teaching, preaching, singing, dancing and relating to the kids, it seems obvious to all of us on this trip this young man was born for the purpose of leading change for kids in Swaziland.  A teaching and preaching time before the meal was very fun and moving (Okay…I cried a little being so moved by the prayers of praise and thankfulness to God from the people in this place).  The D-teams are an important part of Children’s Hope Chest strategy to have Swaziland people in leadership roles.

A quick word about carepoints in general.  This particular carepoint is sponsored by Bob Mudd’s Church.  Prior to sponsorship, these kids were starving.  This is true of all the carepoints.  Without community support, gifts and grants, there would be starvation, malnutrition and death.  The GREAT news is carepoints like this make a huge difference.  These children are now much healthier, happier and feel more secure.  On top of that, they are learning and growing.  There are a few unsponsored carepoints that receive food from Children’s Hope Chest through a limited supply grant that will run out in Feb 2010. 

Feel free to ask questions in the comments below.  I hope to expand on these details when I have more time to post.  The pictures and video below help tell the story of today’s experience.

Holding little ones.  Often they don’t want to be put down.

Fun in the Jumping Gym.

Many of the children don’t have shoes.  One of the little ones had a thorn removed from his foot.

Awesome disciplship trainer helping a blind young boy have some fun in the Jumping Gym.  It was very touching watching the other kids help this boy when he needed a little assistance.  As a community they watch out for each other in many ways very well.

Discipleship Trainers at Mehlabaneni Carepoint from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Here is a group of 12 to 14 year old boys I spent a long time talking and hanging out with.  The boy on the lower left told me his story.  His father is dead, and he lives at his grandma’s place.  He does go to school, but he told me he does not like going to school without shoes.  He had no shoes, and he is very interested in a pair of size 6 soccer shoes.  We prayed together for God to meet his needs and assured him that God knows his request.  Let’s see how He fulfills the prayer.  I showed all these boys the family pictures I brought with me.  They all thought my wife, Barbra, is very beautiful, and they liked the picture of my huge extended family of 8 brothers and sisters and kids.

Another group shot of the boys.

Tomorrow we go to a 3 to 4 hour Swaziland church service.  Afterward we drive south to Nsoko.  We will do home visits over the next two days.  I am told by the people who work here on the ground, this is where the hidden side of living conditions and suffering is learned.

Mankayane carepoint was started by a Swazi man named Pastor Sam.  In this town is a large community where people are sent who have no where to go, or are cast out by their extended relatives.  Pastor Sam buries people dying of AIDS on a weekly basis, and sometimes daily.  There are about 15000 people living in this area, and the crime and drug rates are high.  Only one child showed up today due to school exams, but normally about 100 kids show up for meals.  Pastor Sam collected funds in Swaziland to build a school building which has two teachers.  Once a kitchen is built he expects 200 kids to show up at this carepoint.  He also believes there is a need for two more carepoints in this area to service 600 kids.  We walked down a hill from the school into the village, and visited a few people who lived there.  The first lady invited us to see her home and take a picture.  She requested help from us so she could get her children back and have a place of her own.  A lady on our team prayed with her and gave her a hug.  We also took a quick visit to Pastor Sam’s church which is in the middle of a slow building process.

Next we traveled to Mpaka.  This carepoint is run by a Swazi Minister and his wife who both have jobs, take care of their three kids and help run the carepoint that serves about 100 kids.  The wife has a chior with the kids, and they represented her well by singing (see video).  The children here had a lot of creative energy, and performed a short dance they made up for us.

Today, most of the team noticed differences between each of the carepoints.  They all have unique characteristics, both wonderful and challenging.  I am starting to understand the vision for the continued growth of current and future carepoints.  Tomorrow after the Christmas party at a carepoint, we will have more discussion on the best way to choose a carepoint for the various team members seeking to find their connect community.

Little girl who showed up at the Mankayane carepoint after we arrived.

Little Girl at Mankayane from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

School building built with funds raised by Pastor Sam.

Woman in Mankayane who let us into her home to explain her living conditions, told us her story, and asked us for help.  Four people on two beds in a 12x12ft shelter.  There are a lot of boxes and things stored inside as well.

Pastor Sam is nationally influential and a teacher of pastors in Swaziland.  He has great vision for his country and it’s children.

Mpaka Children Singing from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Don with some children from Mpaka.  Most of the kids here were having a lot of fun after their dinner.

Mpaka Children Dancing from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Today the reality of the situation has hit.  We visited four carepoints and drove past several others.  What struck me most today was two tings: watching the kids walk up the trails toward the carepoints where food cooking had just begun, and young girls and boys caring for their toddler and baby siblings.

The four carepoints are Thembini, Bevini, Ludlati(rural), and Mpholi(inside city). 

Thembini is close to the same level of development as Balekane.  Bevini has only land and a kitchen and serves about 100 kids.  Ludlati is down the road only a couple miles, but only has a tree on the land.  This carepoint is newly started and serves 90-100 kids two meals a day.  This carepoint is in need of community connection to get development moving forward.  Mpholi recently received land from a chief, but is currently run by a Go-go from her own place.  There are too many kids for her place, but the plan is to get a kitchen started on the new land.

I want to write more, and plan to do so when I have more time.  In summary, today’s carepoint visits revealed more about the desperate situations here in Swaziland.  It hit many of the team members in the heart and guts.  The great news is the large difference a developed carepoint (i.e. Balekane, Thembini) makes in children’s lives where more hope is given and received.

Little Guy I from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Little Guy II from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

This is Little Guy’s sister (getting the real names is difficult because of language and the number of kids)...she became an attachment.

Whenever I tried to put her down, she would pull her feet up.  It’s becoming the norm now to peel the kids off Don and drag him away from the carepoints.  Here we are playing patty-cake.

Photo by Ron Elmore

Introduction to Ludlati Carepoint from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Children Walking to Ludlati Carepoint from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Might be hard to see, but here is one picture of two hands traced onto paper at the Mpholi carepoint.  I have a bunch more in my notebook journal…gets a smile from each child.

This is what we call here in Swaziland a Camera Huddle.  This particular huddle occured at Mpholi.

Photo by Hannah Leman

Mpholi Carepoint from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Young Lady and Her Baby Sister from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Tomorrow we drive much farther to a couple carepoints with more severe conditions.  I believe these carepoints serve up to 150 kids.  There are other carepoints we might visit where they serve 300 kids.

Internet access is spotty, and we don’t have a post from Don today, but I have copied a post from another member of their travel group - Bob Mudd, COO of Children’s Hope Chest.

A Picture of ‘What is’ and ‘What can be’

God is Good!

Hello from Africa.  I am on the second day of the trip.  This morning after breakfast we drove from Johannesburg into Swaziland (about 4.5 hour trip).  Close to the border between South Africa and Swaziland, the terrain changed quickly from rolling hills to mountainous.  A south African KTM member had told my wife and I, and yes, Swaziland IS a beautiful countryside.  This afternoon, we visited a carepoint near the city of Manzini called BaleKane.  This care point has been developed from nothing but a 20acre plot of land to a location where about 100 kids come for food and school over the past three years.  Some of the children walk for 2.5 hrs to get there.  Most are orphans, but the primary objective is feeding, education and Swaziland led spiritual discipleship for the children.  There are about 10 Go-Go’s (Grandmother aged women) that rotate through cooking and feeding duties.  And there are teachers on site for grades pre-4th.  These children are relatively well nourished and are receiving love and hope at this care point.  I can give more details later, but significant progress has been made to date.  They plan to add a 5th grade class room in January of next year.

From the moment I stepped out of the van, the children were on us with bright faces and greetings.  We spent time interacting by taking pictures and showing them the screens.  Most of the time, I had a tightly packed crowd of 4-10 kids trying to get recorded and/or view the play back.  At any point in time there was one or two little ones riding on my arms or legs depending on if I was standing or sitting.  They were hungry for the attention and love.  I was happy to give hugs to these children.  The reaction was once they got a hug, they pressed in and soaked it up.  In all the fun one girl was tripped to the ground.  She didn’t mind when I stood her up and wiped the dirt from under her eyes, and gave her a hug.  She became one of my multiple hip riders for several minutes.  I didn’t want to leave, but the children had to start their walk back to their ‘homes’, and we left for dinner and a culture training meeting.  Tomorrow we will visit 3 or 4 carepoints.  One or two are starting from what is called a ‘green field’.

Here is a short video clip to give you an idea how fun and active the interaction was while relating with these children.

Meeting Swaziland Children from KnownToMe on Vimeo.

Beautiful Swaziland Country

First little girl to be carried about for several minutes.

Children getting ready for silly pictures.

Picture with just a few of the kids.

When I asked this little girl her name, she stated her name followed by “...I am six years old, I am a girl” as she smiled and pointed to herself.  She hung around at the end for extra holding, hugs and pictures.

I was quite impressed with this young man.  His name has a click sound in it (I need more siswati training), he is nine years old, and spoke to me very well in English.  Before I left, he told me “I want to be your friend”.  He wanted to know when I could come back.

The email below is from a staff member of Children’s Hope Chest to an online prayer group called iFast58.  As I read it, I was moved to tears and haunted by the question of how I allowed myself to put this in a box and not care for so many years.  I just flat out didn’t care.  That’s the reality, and I’m not going to sugar-coat it.  I knew full well that children like Dima existed, but I never opened myself to any level of personal compassion (that word again) for them.  It is an interesting parallel to the biblical concept that “faith without works is dead”.  I did not really care until AFTER I began to act out of obedience to what I saw in His Word, and my level of care and desire to serve orphans and the very poor has grown exponentially for every small action I take to physically help.  Don’t put off action until you “feel” an emotional call.  God will supply the emotional desire and the joy of doing His will when we act… at least that’s how it worked for me.

As I contemplated the iFast58 request today, my heart was broken. The profile of a young boy named Dima caught my attention. I am not sure why it caught my attention it has been sitting on a credenza in my office for weeks. But today, I began to think about him – how he is a little younger than my son Luke. I thought of how Luke sometimes needs his mom just to hold him or he will just come snuggle with us – Dima does not have that – he is alone. It is easy to dismiss Dima because we don’t know him – he is on the other side of the planet – out of sight and out of mind.
I want you to meet Dima:The is no current information on his parents.

In Russia , when a child is orphaned, they are stigmatized for life. Their options for education, work and a future are very limited. Their suicide rates are high as is their propensity to abuse drugs. Organizationally we have needs but I would prefer that you pray for Dima today. Please pray that he does not feel lonely when he goes to bed at night. Please pray that when he is scared someone will be there to tell him it is ok. Please pray that someone will encourage him and tell him he is special. Please pray that despite his circumstances that he will feel loved and not worthless. Please pray that he would feel the presence of a loving God who wants to him to know that he created him for a purpose.Thanks!

I forgot to add this tidbit yesterday… We ordered 10 copies of Red Letters just in case they were needed for any reason.  We still have nine of those available.  If for any reason you want to participate in the books study and have not gotten your hands on the book, let us know and we will get these books out to the first nine of you who request them.  No cost, no obligation… other than participating in our book study.

...and I just remembered another good Dave story… ask him if it’s a good idea to shoot a skunk while it’s in your house (it’s not a good idea by the way, but the story of how he figured that out is a good one). 

We will begin our group book study of Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds, by Tom Davis with a live chat at KnownToMe.net on Sunday, November 1.  We will cover the first two chapters of the book, and will start the chat with some questions or comments that came to the front of our minds, but we will not limit our discussion in any way.  We will then post a summary of the chat to the forum so we can all post additional thoughts throughout the following week.  You can find the Known To Me chat room under the “Member” link at the upper right of the menu bar.  Try that link in advance, you may need to adjust your browser’s security settings to get in.

Since we are studying a Tom Davis book, it is great timing that he will be speaking at First Christian Church on November 6th, 6:30pm.  The evening includes dinner, music, and the presentation by Tom Davis.  This will be special - tickets are $20 per person.  But, we will give two sets of two tickets away in a drawing - just take the plunge and tell your story in the KTM forum letting us know how you found KTM, and if there has been anything in your life that has particularly drawn you to caring for “the least of these”. We are just interested in you! Even a line or two counts here.

Remember, there are a lot of people here from a lot of different social and family settings.  Please jump in to the forum and introduce yourselves, comment on posts… building relationships is at the heart of what we are doing here. 

PS.  Leanne, tell Dave I’m disappointed that I don’t have a comment from him on Pensee #1. 

PPS.  As you get to know me, you’ll find that I like to put people on the spot… including myself sometimes - in a fun and productive way, of course.  The truth is that I hope Dave and Leanne become regular contributors and probably guest bloggers.  Some great insights and writing skills from that duo.  So, you see, if you don’t tell us about yourself, I’ll start choosing what I want to tell about you.  I’m trying to think now of something else I could tell about Dave… maybe about the time I left fragments of my finger for him to clean up in his wood shop.    That was not a good day… amazing how long ago that was now.

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster online…

com·pas·sion
Pronunciation: \kəm-ˈpa-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Late Latin; Anglo-French, from Late Latin compassion-, compassio, from compati to sympathize, from Latin com- + pati to bear, suffer

Compassion: sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it

Today, the root words forming compassion mean a lot to me:  Com - meaning with, or alongside.  Pati - to suffer.

Don will soon leave his family to travel to Swaziland.  Motivated by compassion.  I remember the tears when my wife left with her dad to go meet our kids in Ethiopia.  I stayed behind with two of our bio kids and believe me, there was some suffering.  The pain of feeling so alone was intense, knowing my wife would be far from home, beyond contact, beyond my ability to provide anything that she might need.  Seeing my son and daughter weep like I had never seen them weep before as I peeled my 7 year-old daughter from her mother’s neck.  In my weakness, I’m not willing to go through that again… not right now anyway.

That’s why I am so humbled and feel such admiration for Don and his family.  I know what they are feeling, and I also know first-hand that the joy that comes from demostrating compassion consistent with God’s plan competely overwhelms the suffering.  Especially when our suffering in a short-term mission is just that: short-term.

The pain we felt was the pain of being alone - without someone we love beyond what we can express.  But Jenny was with her Dad and our 10 year-old son.  I was with her mother and two of our kids.  Not alone at all.  Not compared to the hundreds of millions of children who wake up each morning with no one to hold them.  No one to cry with them, No one to comfort them, No one to tell them they love them.  No one to just quietly put a hand on their shoulder and to say, “I’m in this with you”. 

Today, think about the little, comforting things you would miss if your loved ones were not with you.  Think about kids who long for those comforts with all their being, but will never experience them without you and me.  They exist… they are very real.  I remember how painful it was for me to suffer the absence of those comforts.  Even though I knew Jenny’s absence was short-term, even though I had the benefit of a background of experiencing that kind of support throughout my life.  I weep (I actually am right now as a matter of fact - I have an office at work so I can close my door… thank God for small blessings) to think of kids who experience the grief and pain I experienced - but without hope.

I know Don will leave with some questions, among them: “what can I bring to the situation I will see?”.  Through Don, God will bring someone to cry with those kids, someone to put a hand on their shoulder, someone to tell them that we love them, and that we will not leave them.  He will suffer with them, as will his family who will miss the comfort of his presence - and they will together feel the comfort of God’s joy and peace.  That is my definition of compassion today.