SOUTH AFRICA: the call

Hey folks. For the next three weeks, I'll be in South Africa, working with an organization called Prevention Time. Below is the explanation (copied and pasted from my support letter) of how and why this trip came about. Be checking back for trip updates. I appreciate your prayers and well wishes!!

This is a little story:

Back in 2006, I spent my summer in Malawi with a team of college students, working with Children of the Nations. For two months, I lived at an orphanage in a village called Chiwengo, tutoring the kids, hosting visiting teams, doing rural outreach, and working with my team to show these children love.

It was an unbelievable learning experience for me, but at the end of the summer, I felt acutely that I had received more than I had been able to give. I thought with envy of my friends with medical backgrounds who were able to offer tangible help to people in developing countries, and knew that what I was able to offer the Malawians was extremely limited. I made up my mind then that if I ever came back to Africa, I would want to come with an idea of how I could offer something more tangibly helpful.

I haven't felt the pull to return to Africa since I got back from Malawi that summer. The idea of how I could contribute never arrived, and other than the sweet memories of the kids I worked with, Africa was off my radar. In the meantime, I pursued teaching as a career, and was lucky enough to find a job at Seattle Christian Schools. I LOVE being a teacher, and for the last several years, my passion for teaching has consumed my focus.

Then, Colin Bishop came to Seattle Christian and spoke at chapel.

Colin is a South-African. He’s a soft-spoken older man with a powerful build, and I appreciated him immediately because of how respectfully he addressed our teenage students. He told them stories from his life growing up in Africa, and then transitioned into discussing the organization he helped establish called Prevention Time.

Prevention Time is an AIDS education program which is taught in schools by young African peer educators. I knew that AIDS was still a major problem in Africa, but I had no idea how much misinformation still exists... and the stories Colin told about the cultural mindset around this issue were heart-breaking. AIDS has ravaged the country and culture; parents with AIDS are dying, which leaves young children responsible for taking care of their orphaned siblings.

Teachers in schools are dying off because they've contracted the disease, which cripples the education system. These devastating circumstances then lead the surviving young people to a mindset of futility. They have little to live for, so then they take unnecessary risks, and keep the disease spreading. It's a horribly vicious cycle.

Prevention Time, however, is tackling this issue on a number of different levels and it sounds like they're experiencing huge success. Not only does their “Reach4Life” program provide practical, necessary information, but the fact that the teachers of this information are the peers of the students they're teaching means the culture is transforming from the inside out. The peer educators, meanwhile, are equipped with a sustainable career skill and are often hired on as teachers at struggling schools.

Additionally, it sounds like the Christian concepts incorporated into this curriculum-- like living for a bigger purpose, or embracing redemption and grace-- are providing incentives for young people to live with hope. They want to live well, not just to avoid AIDS, but because they believe their life could have a purpose; that their future could play a part in a much bigger story.

As Colin said all this, my heart started cart-wheeling in my chest. I can’t explain why this hit me as powerfully as it did—but, wow, it HIT me. I raced up to him to talk afterwards (decked out in head-to-toe pink... it was Spirit Week... he thought I was a student...) and asked if there was some way I could get involved with what he was doing. We talked after school and ultimately Colin asked me to come to South Africa this summer and participate as an educational instructor for their peer-educators teaching program. Basically, I would help teach teachers.

SO THAT IS WHAT I AM DOING. On July 7th, I'm flying to South Africa for three weeks to work with Wheaton professors to provide teacher training to peer educators. We'll be doing a combination of observations, individualized feedback, and training, in both the rural area of Kwazulu Natal and the urban Soweto ghetto in Johannesburg. I feel like I've found a way to offer tangible help to an area of need, and it’s by using my passion for teaching!

Please pray for me if you believe in prayer; please pray that I have the humility to enter this trip as a learner; the confidence to overcome my fears and insecurities so that I can step confidently into the role I feel I've been called to play; and please pray for safety. Please also pray ahead of time for the conversations I'll be having and the relationships I'll be forming. If you are not someone who prays, I would ask for your well wishes and emotional support.

Thank you-- can't wait to tell you how it goes!!