Outreach Spotlight - South Africa
South Africa 2006: A Journey of Discomfort, Discovery and Amazing Grace
It started with a rainbow. Taxiing to the gate at a stormy Detroit airport, we prayed and worried for one of our group who had not shown up when we left Nashville two hours before. Our spirits soared when we discovered that she had been put on an earlier flight and was watching us from the terminal. Just then, we saw a rainbow arching across the sky outside our plane’s window. We were off to South Africa.We went to explore a partnership among hospices and churches. Along the way, we experienced discomfort, discovery, and amazing grace.
There was the discomfort of seeing the poverty in the “informal settlements” where sticks and tin make a home and the only water comes from a hand pump down the road – of meeting people dying of AIDS in informal settlements, and then meeting their children – of seeing the lingering separation of blacks and whites, physically, socially, and economically. There was the discomfort of realizing that this separation was a sight so familiar that it was all but lost on us.
But then there was the discovery of the incredible beauty God has bestowed upon this land. We saw the richness of God’s palette as we peered through the white picket fence of a seaside home at an immaculate backyard of emerald green grass flanked by cascading pink and purple flowers against a backdrop of bright blue sky and cerulean sea. We observed the harnessed power of a lion, admired the graceful elegance of an eland, smelled the musty odor of a water buffalo, and laughed at the panache of penguins on the beach. From a mountain top we looked down at the point where two oceans meet.
Finally, there was the amazing grace at work in the people of this land – grace: “the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.” We heard grace in the forgiveness and reconciliation of a people ravaged by the scourge of Apartheid, like the woman whose husband had been imprisoned for fifteen years and who not only refused to hate, but turned forgiving love into action, orchestrating a school feeding program. We learned grace in the first-hand history lessons from Naomi Tutu. We experienced grace at Hospice in the West where we played African drums with patients and, for a moment, saw all colors – “the rainbow people of God” – joined in music, movement, and the celebration of the Holy Spirit when even the lame danced. We felt grace in the worship at St. Thomas Church where music again reverberated, incense filled the air, and happy voices in different languages were raised to God in praise.
God’s hand was everywhere in our journey, breaking our hearts then filling them again. He has granted our parish an opportunity to forge a partnership with our new friends, these fellow members of the Body of Christ, who have so much to tell us. Those of us who journeyed are changed. We pray you will join us.
Monica Carlson