Lost in Faith

Here are the highlights of my recent visit to SA.

Visited Kwasisabantu and the Doctors for Life Int’l.  They gave us building plans, operating procedures, and budgets for their Child Care Centers.  We learned that it is inevitable that the children will sleep in the center.  The social workers will work with you on this issue.

We discussed medical ministries and their recommendation is to pursue a mobile clinic vehicle with a surgical field contained within it.  The surgical field being mainly for cataracts but useful for other procedures.

They want to explore the importation of pharmaceuticals from Heart to Heart via a container.  They have a vehicle which can haul a container.   They can pick up at the Durban port and bring it where ever it needs to go.

They have some great resources on DVD for AIDS/HIV Training.  Almarie and Rufus have them.

They are willing to send people to Seleni to open the Orphan Care Center.  They are currently spending R300/mth per child or about $43USD.  This may impact our Child Sponsorship fund raising in the future.

As Schaun thought, the connection with Michael Hale was exceptional.  Michael is a white South African who has lived in Port St. Johns for  25 years.  He speaks Xhosa and has a long history of village politics.  He and Telius have a long history!   Michael has a soft heart and a love for children.  He has two adopted 18 year old daughters who live with him on his lot that has a million view of the ocean.

He is finishing out a thatched roof, two story vacation rental for income as well as plans to build a backpackers dorm next to it.

He has agreed to supervise the Seleni building project.  We will pay him for his work.  He has a builder who he thinks will give us the best price possible to get it built while using local labor when he can.  We need to get the money from C3 transferred to Rufus and Almarie’s account ASAP.  We should start moving dirt next week and hope to be finished by June 1.

A possible future project would be to help Michael finish his house.   This has some fascinating possibilities for economic development in the location.  A private vacation, with a million dollar view and a private beach could go for a hansome some on a weekly basis.  Marketing would be an issue.

The house in Lusikisiki worked well.  We had 5 guys stay in it on air mattress which we left there.  There is a pump for them but it needs a power converter to keep from burning out on the SA voltage.  The house has five individual sleeping rooms.  There is a B&B across the street that we used.  It was R300/per person per night.  Very nice accommodations for those who don’t want to rough it.

We have forth coming a report on the Bambasani compound.  It has some challenges.  The water there is owned by the hospital and would have to purchase from them if an arrangement can be made.  There is a public road that runs thru the compound to the hospital that is seldom.

Bhukwini was both encouraging and discouraging!  The school has been fixed as I challenged them in Oct.  There is a new fence around the school as well.  The downside is that Armstrong seems to be taking advice from a set of young guys who rolled in like a posse.  There seems to be an old/young division in Bhukwini.

Daniel and Kristi Fair will begin distributing food to orphans in Bhukwini this month.  They will need Gladys Pondo, Rufus, Michael Hale, or Telius to establish this routine.  Rufus has agreed to go with them while they get established.

On a side note I spoke with Gladys while laying over in Jo’berg.  She told me that Armstrong is “not” the chief.   That his older brother, the police officer, is the chief.  Armstrong is simply “acting” as the chief in his absence.

Telius is going to coordinate the farmers trip to Ft. Hare and include Valele, the Agricultural extension officer with them.  We’ll wire money to his account for the taxi fares and arrange for accommodations and meals while in Alice.  We asked the Ft. Hare folks if it were possible to have them spend the night at a farmers home and further engage the connections.

We have a report on the school forth coming.  We took pictures and copious notes on the cinder block and mud/stick buildings.  The 8th and 9th grade building made of tin needs to be demolished and rebuilt.  I will transmit this to Schaun next week when our guys get it done.  They are expecting a crew in September.

I think we are far off from establishing an Orphan Care Center ion bhukwini due to the lack of political stability and credible leadership.

I was able to communicate to Rufus and Almarie the beginning of financial support for them.  They were deeply touched and most appreciative.

I am developing list of people who have an interest in the Luttigs.  Almarie is giving me her list, if any of you have people who should be on that list please email their contact information to me.  I would like to start a regular information piece that will recruit more donors to this.  To expand rapidly we need to continue to find South Africans and resource them so that we can release them from developing there own support and work in the Orphans ministry full time

While at the ranch not only did I bag a trophy warthog but noticed that there are many things that need attention around the ranch.  If we could find a retired couple who wanted to stay for free for a week and just fix up the little things that need attention we could free Rufus up.   It would need to be a self motivated, handy and resourceful person who would work without Rufus and find the things that need repairing.

The university exchange is still a live option but there are many details that need to be ironed out.  The next step is a conference call that will allow the universities to talk and develop a structure to work out those difficulties.  I will stimulate that.  We still do not have a SA Rotary parnter.  Our agenda didn’t allow us to attend a Rotary Club meeting to acquire that relationship.

In regards to future trips, the Mvobu Lodge near Alice/Ft Beaufort has cabins perched high on a cliff overlooking the Fish River.  We saw giraffes, hippos, kudu, bush buck, and a host of other things.  It cost R1600 for 12 people, lodging only.

The Bible school is situated well in their new facilities.  We met with the 5 students and Peniel for about an hour.  This could be a powerful resource.  We need to strategize with South Africans how to get the right students in the pipeline.  I am planning on spending 3 or 4 days with them on one of my next trips.   We’ll see how well I do getting up at 4 am and praying for two hours!

An issue that is abundantly  clear as we attempt some incredible stuff in SA is the lack of depth in our roster.  We are one deep in most areas.  Take Daniel and Kristi out and the soup kitchens, orphans sponsorship, etc will collapse, Molly goes down and Jehovah Jireh is in trouble (Almarie would like to get Molly to someplace like Kwasisabantu to provide some soul care for her.  Almarie feels this is critical and needs to happen now to avoid burnout.  Schaun, does OM have the funds to support this? ), remove Rufus and Almarie and we are blind in the Transkei.

Adding people like Michael Hale to the team is not an option, it is a necessity.  I am starting a database of people.  We need to work like insurance agents or multi-level marketing people and grab every contact we can and begin the process of ascertaining their credibility.

Our goal is to build 10 orphan care centers in 2009 and we don’t have a contact and warm relationship beyond Seleni and Bhukwini.  Someone needs to scout the area and begin to develop targets for the next centers.  Are there good churches we could work thru, people already doing orphans care work, etc.  We must find them and begin relating to them.

This trip has given me more hope than all the others.  The connections that being made and getting dirt moving in Seleni give us some real tangible results to all of our efforts.

Some future projects we might attempt,
finish Michael Hale’s coastal cliff chalet and explore its development as a job creator for the location he lives in.
build the backpackers building for Michael
bring a Chinese or Vietnamese House church leader to  Transkei to see if it might be possible to use their expertise to spread the gospel in the Transkei
Outfit a mobile medical clinic with a surgical field
Send Michael, Telias, Linde, et al to Thrive Africa to get their program started in Transkei
Explore 3g modem technology and the use of Skype to develop a weekly mentoring program for Telius, Linde, and other promising leaders.
Community Care Worker Training in Seleni and Bhukwini on a volunteer basis

Jetlag is now upon me!  I hope this gives you an idea of the last 10 days!