It is the middle of January here in South
Africa as it is in other parts of the world however, being the middle of
January has a greater meaning here than elsewhere, at least the parts of the
world that I am familiar with. Here, the “holidays” are beginning to reach its
terminus and things are beginning, although very slowly, to be restored to
“normal.” People once more answer their phone, attend their place of employment
and, to some extent, stop using the excuse of nothing is happening because of
the “holidays.” However, one cannot get
overly optimistic, as the drummer here never seems to get in rhythm to the pace
you feel you want to set. Angie keeps reminding me that one of the many things
I have yet to develop in this mortality is patience. I really do not have a
problem with developing patience, I just want it done now.
The bright light in this work is when you
see someone rise up out of despair and stretch for that which seems to be
beyond their reach. Joy and a sense of great satisfaction comes as one is able
to be part of that motivational process that causes a person devoid of hope, to
believe in themselves, exert that new found confidence and say, yes, I can do
it. As I have mentioned before, we teach workshops that are designed to cause
people to see, for perhaps the first time in their lives, the skills and
talents that they have. They are then taught how they can utilize those talents
and skills to climb out of their current state for that which they have felt
was beyond their grasp.
Many times, we have found, the people just
need to be able to see themselves in a new light, to know that they have value,
to have a belief in themselves that they can succeed. As an example, last week we held a workshop in
which a lady in her early fifties attended. In the course of the various tasks
that we have them do, we found out that she used to be a manager of a plant
nursery and had even achieved an award as an outstanding employee. However, a
couple of years ago her husband divorced her and soon thereafter, one of her
parents died and then her grandma died. She went into a depressive spiral. She
could no longer function in her job and, in her state of sorrow and despair, she
quit her job.
After hearing her story and learning of her
skills that had become latent, we encouraged her to re-contact her previous
employer and inquire about getting her
job back. She practically broke out in a nervous sweat talking about it and
expressed doubts about herself. We pressed her to make the call, she said she
would but would not commit to when she would do it. We knew that was simply a
stall and we had to convince her that she could do it, she had the skills
necessary for the job, she was a good reliable person and would make anyone a
good employee. So, after destroying a number of her excuses, we got her to
commit to make the call.
Today we saw her at church and to our (and
her) great joy she told us that she had a job. She attributed her success to
the fact that, because of our help and persistence, she was able to see herself
in a new light – one that was positive, erasing the negatives that had been
holding her back. She was happy, almost giddy with excitement. She was so
excited that she stood in church and told her story. She will start work next
Monday.
Now, several things about this story are
important to understand. The first thing is that the Lord expects us to act; we
have to do something before he can, or will, help us. That is what
self-reliance is all about, doing something to help ourselves. The second thing
is trusting that the Lord will assist us in our efforts. We are not here on
earth to fail but to succeed. However, He cannot - will not - rob us of our freedom
to choose; we have to be willing to take a step into the unknown before our
path begins to become illuminated.
Coming home from one of our assignments
Saturday, we stopped at a “lion park” near here. The park was interesting, as
they always are, but unfortunately, the lions and tigers were all in
enclosures. I hope before we leave Africa that
we get to see all these animals in their true environment. At one point in our
tour, I was reminded of the scripture in the Bible that states that during the
millennium, the calf will lie down with the lion. However, in this case there
was a man lying down with the lions. The lions appeared to be snoozing and he
was nonchalantly petting them.
The highlight of the tour had to be the giraffes; they are such magnificent animals. They exert an air of being in complete control – totally confident about themselves and what they are doing. It is as if they are saying, “I won’t be pushed around, but I also want to be your friend.” Their countenance is one of gentleness, friendliness and inviting. One stood not three feet from our car chewing his cud while gazing at us devoid of any concern.
No comments:
Post a Comment