Earth isn’t like heaven at all. We’ve covered this. More than once. But that’s been the theme of my heart, mind, and writing lately.
I see things that are horrible, and I obsess over the way those things ought to be. I can’t keep my eyes closed anymore. They are wide open.
Those men and women dying of AIDS? Those statistics we see on the news and images at which we can hardly look? Those are real people. I’ve met them. I’ve held their hands and prayed for their healing.
Those children who are starving? The ones who don’t get to eat over the weekends because their parents care more about alcohol than about them? They’re real, too. I’ve filled up their Tupperware containers with pop and beans and taught them songs about how radical God is. I’ve heard stories about what they’ve seen and what has been done to them: detestable, horrendous things that no one, let alone children, should have to go through.
I’ve seen and heard and felt overwhelmed by it all.
But the more countries I visit, the more people I meet, the more ministries I pitch in to… the more glimpses I get of how things will be.
And this gives me hope.
Team Oasis took up residence in Cape Town, South Africa during the month of July. Chantel, director of Volunteer Mzansi Afrika and our primary contact, desired that this would be a time of refreshment for us. For our first week of ministry, she arranged for us to live in the homes of different families in the community. We were told that South Africans are exceptionally friendly, and we would be accepted as their own loved ones – “So, if you don’t want to be loved, then don’t go.”
Rebekah and I got the privilege of staying with Daniel and Vivian Du Plessis, and loved us they did. We laughed and shared stories over ungodly amounts of coffee and Ama Dip-Dips. We slept in real beds and took real showers and did laundry in real washing machines. We lived “real life” with people who became our family.
Danny and Vivan, pastor and wife of Fellowship Bible Church, run a mission school that targets the children of the alcohol-ravaged community surrounding it. We got to serve with them by making food, washing dishes, organizing closets, and teaching extracurricular classes like soccer, dance, music, and art. These kids, whose ages range from four to fourteen, deal with every behavioral disorder under the sun. They come from homes that are broken, moms and dads who don’t see them, and expectations that their lives will amount to nothing.
I’ve heard story after story about the way things were. The skin-and-bones children who appeared at school on day one are not the kids I saw while I was there. They are healthy, lively, and no longer worrying about whether they will eat at least five days out of seven. If a child doesn’t show up to school one day, Danny and Vivian drive to his house at 6am to find out what’s going on. They let their students know how important it is to learn, be responsible, and believe they have futures beyond the ones others have paved for them.
Our World Race parents weren’t just parents to us. They became a mother and father to kids who, for all intents and purposes, have none.
Danny and Vivian’s greatest desire, though – more than the kids having a quality education or food in their stomachs – is that they are saved. “Really, all of this means nothing. All that matters is that they know Jesus,” Vivian says. That’s why they hear Bible stories and learn songs about the God who loves each of them individually. If nothing else, they will hopefully walk away with souls fit for eternity.
Family. Belonging. The love of God. This is the Kingdom – where there is always enough.
Danny and Vivian are those who bring it to earth.
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