Friday, December 14, 2007

A Bad Day


Yesterday we went out to Soshanguve to deliver food parcels to orphans, and to work on gathering orphan profiles for child sponsorship. While there, Ben was running and fell (I think on a rock), splitting his knee open. Dan was on his way to Johannesburg to meet with immigration attorneys, so I was stuck in Soshanguve until some of the AFnet team could pick me up and drive us to the hospital back in Pretoria. By the time we got to the hospital, it was two hours later. Add to this the fact that our power and water has been off and on all week, and by the time Chris came to pick us up and take us to the hospital, I was really feeling indignant and grumpy. But then, as always, the Lord gently reminded me of something (only this time it was more like a whack on the head!):

What we experienced yesterday was regular life for those out in the townships. Who am I, to think that just because I'm an American I should always have access to a car, medical care, electricity or running water?? It is not suffering, to experience for one day (or even one week) what others experience for a lifetime.

And another layer of my American worldview fell off yesterday.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A two week melt down in Quito forced the Inaquito crowd to barbecue all frozen food and have a pot-luck. The cooling food in the fridge came next. After that it was veggies, beans and rice. I survived to read your blog. My kids didn't run through townships cutting themselves on rocks at the same time though. Sounds like the gods are against you.