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| Beautiful African Trees |
It has been an exciting week. Teaching
people how to be more competitive in finding employment is a challenge but a
rewarding one. It is all about honing skills, developing poise, gaining
self-confidence and having the determination to succeed. This past week we were
invited to teach these skills to a group of university students that were in
their final week of school. They heard about the workshops we put on through
church friends and wanted to see for themselves if it would help them to
improve their competitive edge. At the end of the course, they expressed their
amazement at what they were able to learn. One individual who had already had
the opportunity to have several interviews stated he wished he had had the
workshop prior to the interviews – he felt he would have been much better
prepared to respond to the questions he was asked.
At the conclusion of the course and after sharing
some peanut butter sandwiches, one of the students asked us to take a seat; he
had something he wanted to say to us. He explained, with solemn sincerity, that
he/they could not understand why we would be willing to come and teach them for
two days the tools they needed to be better equipped to get employment, feed
them lunches and not ask anything in return. Such treatment they have never
experienced and were truly thankful for it.
They were a great group (there goes those
superlatives again). They were smart, energetic and ready to tackle the world
and the world will be a better place because of them.
Deng, a university student from South Sudan, posing with Lee in front of this very unusual
tree trunk.
In another setting, we spoke with two entrepreneuristic
young men who had taken the self-employment workshop. As a result of the
course, one of them is being trained on how to be an appliance repair
technician (by the fellow in the next story below) and will soon have his own
business operating in the township where he lives. His vision is to service
several townships and have employees. The seed of self-reliance was planted and
nurtured with guidance and encouragement and it will soon bear its fruit to
provide for his family and perhaps many more.
The other individual is determined to be a
motivational counselor with hopes to work with schools to help their students
to more diligently apply themselves while there. He admittedly did not and as a
result struggles to pull himself out of poverty. However, with his newly gained
insight and self-confidence, he has set his goals and knows what he must do to
achieve them. He knows he has a long way to go but believes if he can have
mentors like us beside him, he will succeed.
These are the ingots we are allowed to
store in our sack of gratitude as we work with these people struggling to find
light in a gloomy world.
Joshua's story:
“Joshua, you must make up your mind what
you want to become, this is the third time you have chosen a different path to walk
in life. You have studied at major universities to become a professional but
have always changed your mind. The Lord has blessed you with a great mind and
he has called you to the ministry but you have not obeyed. You have studied to
be a doctor, a lawyer and a preacher of the good word. You have a congregation
of over 500 people who love to hear you preach; you mesmerize them with your
humor, body gyrations and music. The music is loud but it causes people to feel
of the spirit, the spirit is with them as they dance and sing and howl while
you play. They all love you, my son, and now you say you are thinking about leaving
the ministry, I don’t understand you any more.”
“I just don’t feel that it is right”,
Joshua explained – “there is just something missing – it is not what the Lord
wants and I must find out the truth and preach that.”
Joshua can still hear his father rant as he
tried to convince him of the errors of his life. His mother, in support of his
father, reminded him again, as she had so many times of late, that he is, and
always has been, a “naughty” boy. And he will never forget the stunned look
both of them gave him when he told them that he was taking lessons from The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ missionaries. Incredulously, they
both stared at him. When emotions exploded unchecked and words finally came
from his father, they were venomous and cutting. Red faced and shouting his
father demanded that he immediately stop participating with this god-forbidden,
heathenistic cult group.
Choked with emotion of his own, Joshua
tried to explain to them both that for the first time in his life he felt that
he had found the true gospel of Jesus Christ and that he just had to find out
for himself if it was true. “If it is true,” he explained, “then I have been
teaching false truths to all these people who you say love me. I have got to
know the truth.”
“You are no longer my son,” his father
shouted. “Get out of my house and never come back; I don’t want to see you
again – never.”
Joshua recalls that it has been many years
since that dreadful night and though he has not seen his father since that day,
his mother has visited him occasionally. The last time she came, she turned on
the TV only to have her 7 year old granddaughter get up and turn it off.
Turning to her son, she questioned, “What did she do that for?” “That movie is
not appropriate for us to watch, it is PG-13,” he said. “But I am an adult,”
his mother fired back, “and I can watch it if I want to.” “You can, if you choose
to, mother,” Joshua responded, “but not in this house.” “Joshua, you sure have
changed from that naughty boy you used to be and I am proud to say you are now
a “good boy,” his mother responded.
Joshua told this story as he spoke in
church last Sunday. He concluded by saying, “I lost part of my family and my
means to make a living when I decided to join The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. And although the choice was difficult to make emotionally, I
knew I had to do it or reject the truth. God had shown me the truth that I had
prayed for all my adult life and now that He had shown me, I had to make a
decision to accept it or reject it. The day that I entered into the waters of
baptism witnessing to God that I was willing to take upon me His name, was the happiest
day of my life and I have never regretted it.”
I have heard others say they had heard
people tell such a story as Joshua’s, but I have never heard anyone tell it
first hand. As I listened to him, the story much more complete than I am able
to remember, the Holy Ghost bore witness to me that what he was saying was the
truth. We must all, in some way, sacrifice to know the truth of the gospel but
it seems some pay a higher price than others. But is the price ever too high to
pay to know beyond any doubt the truth? I don’t believe so and I am glad to be
among those who know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true.
Joshua has gone on to have his own
appliance repair business. While not repairing appliances, he is busy helping
the poorest of the poor start their own business and serving others in any way
he can.
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| GONE TO BED ---BE BACK LATER |
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