Mukhanyo Christian Academy

We are in the Johanesburg airport, where I’ve found a good internet connection--really the best I’ve had, the only fast one I’ve had, since leaving Atlanta airport ten days ago. I am somewhat chastened by my cavalier attitude toward the negative aspects of being connected. Right now I’m really enjoying the chance to catch up and reconnect just a bit.

Just a bit, though. The last week and a half have been wonderful in that I’ve been able to focus on being present in far-flung places, with new friends.

One of those places in Mukhanyo Christian Academy, about two hours northwest of Johannesburg, in an impoverished township called KwaMhlanga. Three or four years ago, Beth Rettig held an AIDS orphan child at one of the Care Centers, run by the organization called MCDC, then walked up a hill to pray and asked the Lord to help her found a school for these children. Over the past several years, that school has come to be a reality, being born almost a year ago, just a few short months after Beth died. The last thing I said to Beth before she went to glory was that we would do all we could to see this school birthed. Trinity parent Keith Brown has stepped into the gap, like a Nehemiah, to make this happen.

Yesterday Desiree and I had the privilege to see the school with its two teachers and two grades (R--our K--and 1st). It would break your heart to see where these children live. One child lives with her 90-year old grandmother, and when we visited, there were at least a dozen children around. She gave us the most amazing gift, a mat which she made herself. I’ve never been so humbled to receive a gift, and I promised her I would find a place to hang it at Trinity. Another child in kindergarten lives alone with her sixteen year old sister. Every night they go to sleep in fear that someone will break in and harm them. No innocence in that young household.

The students are doing well. Learning in English, which is huge. There are intractable challenges, but there is hope.

Puts our challenges at Trinity in a good perspective, and I return with new dreams of how God might use us for the building of his kingdom.

Comments

Lloyd said…
Well, I do hope others have a chance fo read about your travels in Africa. Thanks for sharing them along the way. While it is still fresh in your mind it will be meaningful to campare the culture(s) you are leaving behind with the one you are about to step back into.

I appreciate the way in which you remember Beth Rettig. She is still missed but the memory of her interest in the school is certainly one worth remembering. She would have been interested in knowing more about the grandmother who gave you the gift of the mat as well.

See you soon.

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