ZULULAND HOSPICE

Readings

"Traveling with no understanding of the local history is like going to a 3-D movie and deciding not to bother with the glasses." Rick Steves, Travel is a Political Act

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.- Mark Twain

"Unfortunately, the problems of global health and poverty are almost impossible to grasp unless one has seen them for oneself...Today and tomorrow, learn about the needs of others so we can give expression to their wants...Live a bit more humbly, so that others might live...use our freedom from want to be generous to others who have less." Joseph J. Fins, From Four Freedoms to Four Challenges, www.bioethcisforum.org 

"Mal D'Afrique" is a French word that describes people who visit the African continent and feel deprived in some way when they return to their native country. 

"Doing justice by walking alongside is good work. When you walk beside those who face injustice of any kind, you feel their dangers and vulnerabilities as though they were your own. You offer protection, encouraging or multiplying their personal power. You sow hope, joy and wisdom...

“…I write chiefly for outsiders, those who have not been to Africa who would like to know more about it. The best way to find out is to go, not as a tourist in the bubble of Western luxury and safety, but as a traveler to meet people and engage with them. It is easily done. But beware. Africa can be addictive. Les fous d’Afrique, the French call them, those who become mad about Africa. 

"South Africa is not just another African country. Its extraordinary transition - conducted by face to face negotiation without intermediaries - was a miracle. Mandela, constantly building bridges, exuding hope at every turn, became the guiding spirit of the country and the continent. In its transition.., South Africa produced the most humanist constitution the world had ever seen, guaranteeing personal freedoms but also protecting minority rights and the weak and vulnerable. It was aspirational as well as protective, aiming to encourage the best in human beings while curbing their darker tendencies. No wonder South Africa carried the hopes of the human race. If it could happen there, politics could bring peace and justice anywhere. Now once again, an African country with immense potential may be compromised by its politics. Another South African miracle is needed." Richard Dowden, Africa Altered States. Ordinary Miracles

In her book, Scribbling the Cat, Alexandra Fuller writes about returning from Africa to her home in the US, "The shock is too much, the contrast too raw. We should sail or swim or walk from Africa, letting bits of her drop out of us, and gradually, in this way, assimilate the excesss and liberties of the States in tiny, incremental sips, maybe touring up through South America and Mexico before trying to stomach the land of the Free and the Brave.

Because now the real, wonderful world around me - ... -felt suddenly pointless and trivial and almost insultingly frivolous. ...There was nothing challenging about being here, at least not on the surface. The new year's party I attended was bloated with people complaining about the weight they had put on over Christmas. I feigned malaria and went home to be for a week." 

"A twelve-year-old child in Haiti, involved in commercial sex work, was asked if she knew that she ran the risk of getting HIV and AIDS. The little girl answered, 'I am afraid. But even if I get AIDS, I'll live a few years, won't I? You see, my family has no food for tomorrow.'"

"We would come as pilgrims, not as tourists; as learners, not as teachers; as receivers, not as givers; as listeners, not as talkers."

"They do not so  much need the skills of our hands or the knowledge of our minds as they do the compassion of our hearts."

"Compassion flows from our becoming more aware of human needs around us. Real awareness far exceeds the capacity of either information or rational analysis to effect lasting change." Trevor Hudson, A Mile in My Shoes

"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

"The life you clutch, hoard, guard and play safe with is in the end a life worth little to anybody, including yourself, and only a life given away for love's sake is a life worth living." Frederick Buechner 

Ellen McCurley of the Pendulum Project working in Malawi is asked, "Are you trying to save souls in Africa?" "I always tell them, no, that's not what we're about. We may be only trying to save our own souls." A Twist of Fate, John Donnelly

Henri Nouwen lived with a very poor family for a month in Peru. he writes, "Although I experienced very much the oppression and exploitation, I also discovered many truly human treasures which we, in our First World affluence have lost touch with. I saw a lot of beautiful family relationships. I saw a lot or real joy, gratitude, spontaneity, ability to celebrate and an immense amount of true human affection...I am deeply convinced that we only can work for the liberation of the people if we love them deeply. And we can only love them deeply when we recognize their gifts to us. I am deeply convinced of the importance of social change and of the necessity to work hard to bring about a just and peaceful society. But I also feel that this task can only be done in a spirit of gratitude and joy." p. 63

"Without being with the poor it is hard to see Jesus." p. 108, Love, Henri

 Matthew 24:14-30: “The wickedness and laziness that Jesus rails against is the presumption that we possess anything at all, least of all ourselves. His ire is aimed at the hoarding that comes from the fear of being inadequate, as well as our ingratitude for having been made who we are…who we are is a gift itself, freely offered from God’s extravagant generosity, given to and for this world. The point is not to perfect our particular gifts or ourselves, but to quit hoarding ourselves from others, and instead step out in faith that we have been given all we need.” Kari Jo Verhulst, Living the Word, Sojourners Nov-Dec. ’02, p. 61 

Matthew 25:31-46: “Nobody gets to heaven without a letter of reference from the poor!” Rev. James Forbes

Gail (and Me)

By Erma Mae Perkins

2012 

Gail is a hospice volunteer who has accompanied Lifetime Care staff and friends on ten visits to our partner, Zululand Hospice in South Africa. She pays for the trips from personal funds, spends hundreds of dollars at the craft markets and on fabric, picture frames, etc. Gail spends innumerable hours sewing, making paper embroidery cards, matting and framing paintings and pictures from South Africa, staffing fund-raisers and more.
Gail asked me what I did to inspire this dedication. I replied that if I knew we would have many more people with her level of commitment to our support of Zululand Hospice!

I don’t understand what motivates Gail, but the book, A Mile in My Shoes by Trevor Hudson has helped me understand how my Christian journey inspires my dedication to our partnership with Zululand Hospice. He writes, “Biblical faith consistently asserts that created in the image and likeness of Love, we may learn to love as God does. However, this capacity to love gets buried beneath our excessive egoism, our many self-centered choices, and our constant preoccupation with our own well-being. We become blind to our hidden riches, unaware of how much we can give to others and consequently fail to become who we are capable of becoming.”

Witnessing the desperate poverty of our sisters and brothers in the Umhlatuze has changed us.

“This unfolding of who we truly are finds expression in various ways:

· egocentric attitudes and drives start being replaced by more caring responses;

·self-centeredness slowly gives way to a growing awareness of other people’s needs

·in the place of obsessive self-interest, a concern for the common good develops.”

People express an interest in going on a visit, but feel they have no skills or knowledge to offer. Hudson states, “They do not so much need the skills of our hands or the knowledge of our minds as they do the compassion of our hearts.” I encourage everyone who is willing to open their hearts and bank accounts to the work of Zululand Hospice to go because “ Compassion flows from our becoming more aware of human needs around us. Real awareness far exceeds the capacity of either information or rational analysis to effect lasting inner change.”

The impact of pictures, stories, even eye-witness accounts pales in comparison to actually being there, seeing the children with ringworm, untreated TB, inadequate foodstores with which to take medication.

Others say they cannot bear to witness the poverty and suffering. As Christians, I question the right to limit our awareness of these conditions for “The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind.” Psalms 33:13. He witnesses the inequality of our ways of life 24/7. He knows every child suffering from malnutrition while we debate whether to eat at the King and I, Red Lobster or Red Robin. We groan at the reading on the scales while millions groan with hunger. When the disciples came to him about the hungry 5,000, Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” We have far greater resources at our disposal than the disciples did!

Scripture about “suffering for the gospel” never resonated with me. I felt fortunate that we don’t suffer and did not long for trials that I could consider “nothing but joy.”

Now that I have witnessed the 12x12 ‘ hovels in which 6 people roll out straw mats to sleep at night, in which there is no electricity or plumbing, there is much I can’t take for granted:

 · daily warm showers

 ·hot coffee every morning, choice of egg, bagel, oatmeal or cold cereal

 ·multiple pairs of shoes to choose from

 ·security, ability to walk to the library in the evening, locked doors

 ·transportation, two reliable vehicles

· steady adequate income

·education

and so much more.

This hardly qualifies as suffering, but I am far more attuned to Listening to the Groans, another book by Trevor Hudson. He writes, “We are not called to rise about the groans of our world into some abstract spiritual sphere of joy and peace and serenity. Instead, we are called to become for the world what Christ was for the world. We are called to become the place and means where the world’s pain can be focused and concentrated and shared and even healed. This is how we share in the suffering of Christ through which the world is made whole.”

Whose groan are you hearing? Gail is hearing those of the patients of Zululand Hospice. 

Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication. 

In June 1955 3,000 people opposed to apartheid met and formulated these key points:

*The people shall govern

* All national groups shall have equal rights

*The people shall share in the countrys wealth

*The land shall be shared among those who work it

*All shall be equal before the law

*All shall enjoy human rights

*There shall be work and security

*The doors of learning and culture shall be opened

*There shall be houses, security and comfort

*There shall be peace and friendship