Mission's Conference Update

Desi sent an update of his time at the Hands At Work Missions Conference:

So we are at Hanna Lodge.
At about 2 this afternoon we left for the retreat. Brian, Lynn & I traveled together. It was a good chance for us to get caught up. We made a quick stop in Grasskopf to buy Brian some biltong as I told him it was a must while he was in South Africa. We got lost for a bit of course & got here between 4:30 & 5.

It's a beautiful place of little thatched roof houses built all along the side of a hill. Even the drive in to the lodge was exciting as it was filled with all sorts of wildlife like kudu, antelope, warthogs & impala. The reserve is more of a savanna, not a lot of the big wild animals except for a few of the very elusive leopard.

This evening we were given a challenging message by George, where he picked on the evangelicals & their "5 step prayers for salvation". After we were thoroughly vision-ized we ate a great supper.

Following supper we heard from all of the country leaders. We heard all sorts of incredible stories of people whom they work with & a lot of sad stories that almost bring you to tears & leave you asking the question "what am I doing?" Once again I am in the presence of giants. People doing incredible things in the lives of others as though there were no thought that there might be something else to do with their lives. It becomes very humbling very quickly.

As this was going on a thought crossed my mind. "Do you wonder the shade of red that flowed from Christ as he was crucified? Look into the blood filled eyes of a child dying of AIDS, it's the same. Be there when a father is coughing to death from TB, it's the same shade of red. Hold the hand of a woman covered with bed sores because she hasn't had the strength to get up for months & has nobody to care for her, you will see the same colour. Jesus said 'in as much as you have done it to the least of these....you have done it to me', there is no difference".

It has been awesome to be around Margaret, she is so life giving. She so often seems to be smiling or laughing. It begs the question of how she does it. She has seen so much death during her time in the DRC & yet she longs to do more. She is now looking at starting work in 3 new places, one of them being the Goma region, which borders Rwanda, because "there is so much to be done", she says. It personifies what George said earlier tonight, "I will not be satisfied until I have gone into the darkest corner of this continent & been able to care for the sickest person there". Wow! Then you ask yourself again, "what am I doing?" & you wonder why you even came.

The worst part is that Margaret & Dominic are so honored that we are coming. They are running around telling all of the other project leaders "Westside is coming to Congo", with so much pride. How backwards is that? She was even apologizing because one of the beds that we will be using is "very small" & she is embarrassed to do that to us. Are you kidding me? I am in the presence of giants. This woman is responsible for saving hundreds of lives, just working out a deal to provide ARV's to 300 people, including her adopted daughter, & she is concerned that one of us might have a poor sleep on a bed that is "very small".

If I go on any longer I will feel completely demoralized :) & yet wouldn't change a thing about this opportunity. Being around such people feels so close to God himself.

Dez