Mormon Helping Hands

For those of you who read the Church News or the Ensign Magazine, you will be familiar with the Mormon Helping Hands Projects, particularly the one held each August on the continent of Africa. On August 22, 2009, we were fortunate to be involved in one of the 260 different projects that took place all over Africa. Over 50,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined to 'lend a hand' to a host of projects where material and labor came together to fix-up, paint-up, clean-up and spruce-up orphanages, old peoples homes, other churches, schools, community centers, parks, and on and on. Several hundred thousand man hours were donated to see that the selected projects were left far better than they were found that day. In the true spirit of service and helping those in need, members stepped up and assisted the downtrodden, the aged and the displaced. It was a great day to be alive, get dirty and tired, and witness such improvement and gratitude.

Reenie pictured here with our good friends Gawain and Gayle Wells from Provo, Utah. All are wearing their bright yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" vests.

Our particular project was cleaning and fixing up the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg. This church has been turned into a center for Zimbabwean refugees that have fled the cholera epidemic, 80% unemployment and general oppression in their land. Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, has gone from the most educated population and the bread basket nation of all of Africa, to one of the most impoverished and diseased countries in the world. It is a tragic story of what comes at the hands of a powerful despot, like Robert Mugabe, who was put in power after the days of British colonialism, and has ruled with an iron fist for the last 45 years. As a result, our neighbors to the north are fleeing in astounding numbers (about 5,000 per day) to South Africa, and despite having the blessing of the government of SA to come, there is no support system in place for them when they arrive here.



The Central Methodist Church has been turned into a refugee center. I was awakened immediately to the difference between a 'mission' or 'homeless shelter', and a refugee center, the latter being a very desperate and dirty place for people to come as a very last resort on their journey to escape intolerable conditions. It beats sleeping on the unsafe streets with your children and babies, but not by much. These people have a serious look and feel of hopelessness about them.



Above are some of our folks painting the common areas to give the place a look of cleanliness.



Here are some more of our members scraping the paint-chipped and cracked walls in preparation of a fresh coat of paint. These were some brave ladies, as this area was a home to not only refugee's, but rodents and roaches as well.

Here I am, hanging on to a window sash with one hand while washing windows with the other hand, while balancing myself on a ledge 15' above the stairs below.

I made Reenie take photos here so she would focus on doing that, instead of lecturing me about how foolish I was being by just barely hanging on. The difference in daylight was pretty amazing once the years of dirt was removed from the window panes. In such a dark and depressing place, any and all light was a welcome guest.

Here is my lovely and dedicated wife, cleaning pews that are used for sleeping on each and every night of the week. The pastor at the church said that they average 2,500-3,000 refugee's sleeping in this church each night. She was very emotionally moved as she watched our 250 members move through this building, leaving improvement in our wake.

Here is another shot of the sanctuary and our people giving it a thorough cleaning. This room is used for worship on Sunday morning only and the rest of the time it is a congregating area and a bedroom.

This is what used to be a kitchen/serving area in the church.

It is now one of 30 rooms where everything these people own is stashed, and meal prep is performed daily.

Here are our guys putting a fresh smell and look on the hallway walls of CMC with loving energy, enthusiasm and detail. Many on our crew had never ever painted before, so it was not only an act of service to others, but a day of education for our guys and gals as well.

Here is the main lobby and entrance to this facility that was a beehive of activity all day. This was a very dark and dingy looking place when we got there that morning. It was transformed into a much more inviting and fresh looking area. One that we hope will serve to lift the despair that these fellow members of the human family from Zimbabwe carry...even if just a little.

Happy with the day's effort.

One hard working helper who is ready to go home and get a hot bath!

Clearly a day to remember and one to remind us of how good we have it.

"And behold I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

"What a different world this would be, if we could forget our problems

as quickly as we forget our blessings"

(anonymous)

Stay well...

WOW! What a Month

Following our great visit with our family from the USA a month ago, I must say that the last thirty days have really flown by very fast. They have been days filled with joy and pain. Mostly joy, but some serious pain as well.

Even though we are administrative missionaries assigned to the Area Office to develop and direct the Perpetual Education Fund, we were treated to be involved in two baptisms this month. Claire Lambert, pictured below, who is a great young gal and also Reenie's hairdresser, was baptised and we were invited to participate in and celebrate this wonderful day and significant change in Claire's life. She is from a long line of Afrikaans and British people, so joining a faith that is widely racially integrated was quite a decision for her. She brings great enthusiasm and a wonderful spirit with her to her new community.

Elder VS, Claire Lambert and Sister VS, following her baptism.

Thembi Majombozi is a free-lance journalist that came by our office about six months ago to do a story on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and all of the educational and humanitarian efforts we are doing to help the people in Africa. We struck up a wonderful relationship with her. She interviewed us, asked us lots of questions about our faith and practices and soon began attending church in the Johannesburg 1st Ward. The rest is history. The more she read and studied, the more she loved this gospel and when she and her son decided to join, I was honored that she requested that I baptise them both.

Young Ofetse Mongameti Majombozi and his mom, Thembeka Majombozi on that special day when they became members of the church. She is a wonderful lady. She works 4 days a week in a special school for HIV/Aids orphans who are raising their siblings. Yes, 10-15 year old children who have lost both parents to Aids and who society allows to be 'parents' to their even younger brothers and sisters. The additional day of her regular work week, she works in a homeless shelter for Zimbabwean homeless refugees. She is a gifted writer/journalist and supports herself and her son by freelancing her articles to newspapers and magazines...a sweet and giving woman who has found her place among the Latter-day Saints here in Africa and brings much to the table to enrich our lives.

Here is a photo of us with Lerato Mosimane and her mother at the airport. Lerato kind of adopted us and we were happy to have her. She has had a very difficult life and needed some parenting and love in general, and she was correct to see that we needed a child to care for. It was our gain to know and associate with Lerato during these last 8 months and it was our pleasure to escort her to the airport and see her off to the USA on August 3.

Jim and Reenie with Lerato just before she left for the Provo Missionary Training Center in Utah, to prepare for he 18 month service in the Georgia, Atlanta Mission. She will warm the hearts of those southerners for sure. We miss you Lerato.

All the while a lot of this was going on, I was in some serious pain -having begun the process of passing a kidney stone. I was not sure what it was for the first four days, so I suffered mostly in silence. I received a blessing and exercised faith that somehow with all that we had going on, ie two more missionary couples arriving from the states in 3 days to assist us with PEF is South Africa, (so we can focus our attention on expanding to other countries), and all needing training and attention, that somehow it would all work out. Well, I was literally brought to my knees in pain that Saturday night and ended up in the emergency room...then in the operating room having a eureturoscopy, but finding that the stone was far too big to pass or retrieve (6.5mm- a small peanut!), then the Dr. pushing it back up into the kidney, having a 20" long stint put into my plumbing and told to come back in 4 days and they would 'blast' it apart with a very expensive laser proceedure, so then I could enjoy passing several smaller stones. Well, I went back for that procedure in four days, had X-rays taken so that they could pinpoint the stone for blasting...and it was gone. Yep...gone. They consulted with Urology and Radiology and concurred that it was no longer there. I had no pain, so they scheduled an appointment to remove the stint which was done with local anesthetic only-(I believe water boarding would have been more fun) but I am feeling well again and am grateful to the Lord for His intervention.

"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." James 5:14

One of the many projects that our church is involved with here in Africa is the gifting of thousands of wheelchairs every year. This continent does not have the same support system for the disabled that we have in America, so as a result, there are hosts of people with disabilities that have to crawl or be carried or they just don't go. We were pleased to have a part in this giving ceremony where 48 chairs were given to the Alma House. This is a facility where children are sent, who are physically and/or mentally disabled, to be housed and educated. Everyone of these 48 children needed a wheelchair and none of them had them. It was a heart warming and satisfying bit of giving that we were witness to as these children realized for the first time, a chair with wheels, that will ultimately lead to some level of independence in their lives.

One of the happy recipients.

More of the happy kids getting used to the fact that they don't have to be carried everywhere from now on.

A group photo of the young LDS Missionaries who assisted the kids on this special day, along with the tremendously grateful staff members of the Alma House.

"Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees."

Doctrine & Covenants 81:5

"Tremendous happiness and peace of mind are the results of loving service to others. Nobody can live fully and happily who lives only unto himself or herself."

Gordon B. Hinckley

Stay well...