Just what does the Good News include?

In our work, sometimes it’s difficult to find the balance between meeting spiritual need and meeting physical needs.  On the one hand, whatever we might do to make this life better for someone seems pointless if they end up spending eternity apart from God.  On the other hand, it also seems pointless to merely talk about the amazing love of a Heavenly Father without letting it flow through us in tangible ways.

One of the tricky parts can be connecting the physical help to the spiritual solution, yet avoiding the appearance that our actions spring from ulterior motives, namely merely some religious sense of duty to convert the lost.  It’s no secret, especially among the extremely poor, that the desperate soul may “convert” to whatever religion happens to be handing out rice that day if it means another meal for them or their hungry children.  And while we are to show special love towards those in “household of faith” (Galatians 6:10), that certainly doesn’t mean that we should neglect those still on the outside, especially the poor.

One of the ways we try to strike a balance is by making prayer a part of everything we do.  When we give an application for school fees assistance to a child, we pray together over that form that God would provide a sponsor, and that we would know His love through that provision.  If we give food, we pray over it with the family and thank God for answering their cries for help, and reaching out to provide.  At every opportunity, we strive to reveal Christ as the ultimate source, and seeking His help or giving Him thanks on the spot seems to be an effective way to do that.

What do you think?  How would you balance the two?  What are the dangers of leaning too far either way?

It’s a lot of fun handing them out. After identifying children in need of shoes, we sit them down and have them stick out their feet, so we can see which foot might fit which shoe. The kids stick out their feet as far as they can; some wiggle their toes, as if to make their foot more appealing than the next. When we find the Cinderella who gets to take home the shoes, sometimes they can’t even bare to put them on. They will carefully carry them home, wash their feet, and then finally slip their feet inside.

Next time you thoughtlessly put on a pair of shoes (like I do every day), try to appreciate it a little more. I do.

“One of the most destructive of the misconceptions that had thus far shaped policy on HIV/AIDS prevention and control was that only orphaned children were affected by the pandemic.

This had fed the “powerful myth” that the majority of children who had lost a parent to AIDS lacked family and social networks and needed to be cared for in an orphanage.

JLICA’s research showed 88% of children designated as orphans actually had a surviving parent.

The NGO called on the United Nations to change its definition of an orphan as “a child who has lost one or both parents” because the definition had distorted programme goals by obscuring the fact that most of the children defined as AIDS orphans continued to receive support from their families or extended kin.

“The overwhelming majority of children who have lost a parent to AIDS can and should remain in the care of their families, provided that those families receive appropriate support,” JLICA said in its report.

The NGO stated clearly that “poverty does not cause AIDS”, although it added that extreme poverty was the backdrop to much of the AIDS pandemic and AIDS did cause and compound poverty.

“Over 60% of children in southern Africa live in poverty. Families who are already poor when HIV strikes may be unable to compensate for further loss of income that occurs as a result of AIDS-related illness or death. Poverty is the single biggest barrier to the scale-up of HIV treatment and prevention.

“Poor people’s capacity to access and benefit from services is limited when they lack the resources to purchase food and medicines, pay for transport to service facilities and compensate for income that is sacrificed to healthcare,” JLICA said.”

Another young person, eight year old Gabe of Bellingham, Washington, donated a percentage of his entire summer’s earnings after reading about the feeding program on our Facebook page. Because of his kindness, we will be adding another child to the program through the end of the year!

Pretty big stuff for these little people, don’t you think? Just goes to show that everyone can do something.

As we drove through the rolling hills of sugar cane fields, I could tell he was a little uncomfortable giving me directions to his house. When we arrived at the place he showed us, he seemed even more embarrassed that we wanted to meet his mother. As we waited at the front door, I commented to one of our volunteers who was with me how relatively nice his cinder block home was, compared with those of the other kids in our program.

Khayaliso returned and introduced us to his mother – or at least that’s what we thought. After some confusion, it became clear that the woman was not his mother, but an aunt. As Khayaliso stared at the floor, she explained to us that his house was actually down the road a ways.

Somewhat puzzled, we made our way to where he actually lived, and when I saw his “house”, I realized why he had been ashamed to take us there – especially with friends from school waiting in the back of the truck.

The makeshift one room shack seemed ready to fall in on us as we sat with Khayaliso and his grandmother, who cares for him. Dirt floor, a single bed, a cupboard, and some pots and clothes scattered around the edges. Everything was covered in a greasy, sooty grime from the cooking fires.

As we talked comfortably and respectfully to his grandmother, Khayaliso relaxed. We gave them some food, and prayed with them before we left.

Khayaliso’s name means “beautiful home” in Zulu. I thought that was so sad and paradoxical at first; then I remembered that this is not Khayaliso’s home. Because of Key of Hope and your help, Khayaliso does have a “beautiful home,” waiting for him in heaven.

Khayaliso. His name fits him perfectly.

While half of all South Africans are exposed to TB at some point in their lives, the vast majority are able to suppress the disease with a strong immune system. Once infected with HIV, however, the immune system is weakened and the disease is unleashed. Less than half of the TB patients in Durban are able to recover. This is due in part to the fact that many people do not adhere to the strict 6 month long TB treatment program. Drug supplies are sometimes erratic, and many people stop taking the drugs as soon as they feel better, all of which leads to drug-resistant strains of the virus – now a huge problem in South Africa. (1)

I see the effects of this horrible disease everywhere. One mother I visit weekly can barely speak because of the constant coughing. Her voice comes out as a hoarse, strained whisper. I picked up another one of our kids’ mothers on the side of the road leading out of the squatter camp. She had only managed to walk about 100 yards before having to lay down, calm her breathing, and get her coughing back under control. The clinic she was headed for is about a mile and a half away.

The overcrowding, lack of basic facilities, and poor hygiene associated with these squatter camps creates a fertile breeding ground for diseases like TB, and it is certain that many of our kids already carry this killer within their bodies. All that is needed is for HIV to set it loose.

Want to save a life? Help us reach these kids before it’s too late.

1 “Waiting To Happen: HIV/AIDS in South Africa” (Walker, Reid, and Cornell), 2004.

Pray that God would allow us to help these children find acceptance and love that they need in Him.