Tim Travels To Masoyi, South Africa, '07

For 3 weeks, I will be in South Africa helping an orphan aid organization with urgent construction. Here unfolds the next chapter of my life. Won't you join me?

10.24.2007

THE FREEDOM OF MUSIC

For all the good that I think that all the "tools" have helped to enhance the spiritual experience of music, with all the PowerPoint slides, the over-rehearsed and over-sized worship bands, the slickness of the perfectly written music epic, how could there be anything more? This morning, my community involvement started in the office of Masoyi Home Based Care, as we were invited to their "prayer meeting". We did more than just pray. In fact, the majority of the meeting was singing. And there was no one with a guitar, no one with a piano, no projector and screen. Just one sincerely passionate lady who led. And the simple structure of call and response style music that is embedded in African culture has done away with the need for bells and whistles for meaningful worship. Songs were sung in both SiSwati and English, and it didn't matter if you didn't speak either language. There was no need for drums because the syncopated clapping was easy to follow and all that was required. How great is it that before heading out to engage with the community at a heart level, that my own heart was inspired and elevated by this gathering?!

Lula is an orphan care centre in Masoyi. Here, about 40 children spend most of their days, split into two "classes". When I first entered, there were 15 kids sitting at kid-sized tables, happily playing with green coloured Play-doh. The entrance of a foreigner (particularly one of the rarer Asian kind) did not really distract them. I crouched down to the first table (remember, these are kid-sized tables!) and began engaging them. Obviously, anything I said to them was gibberish, so they started making a song out of what they thought I was saying. Soon, they started calling me "Papa", which is a good thing. I think they concluded that I was harmless after I started making cubes for them out of their dough. Once one kid got a block, EVERY kid wanted a block! This was typical of every situation I found myself in with these kids, whether it was swinging them around, playing soccer with them, giving them a push on the swings; they all wanted a turn with "Papa"! Though I was off construction for this morning, I certainly got my physical workout with these kid-shaped bricks!

I am sensitive of not trying to impose things that I am used to in North American society onto the African culture. But, I didn't realize that the kids would be so open about going through my pockets. I happened to be carrying a bottle of hand sanitizer, and Nathan, my new best friend, happened to get his hands on it. Curious, he was making a motion to open this bottle and try it out with his oral senses. Quickly, I showed him that it wasn't for eating, but applied some of it to my hands and showed him how it works. I then put some on his hands. Well, one can easily guess what happened next. Before I knew it, another kid sticks his hands under the bottle. Again, I tried to show how the gel works, but he ran away before the tutorial was complete, to show his friends. They were smelling it, proding it. I'm pretty sure they tasted it, but I booked it out of there before I could be pointed out as the culprit for doing this!

One of the songs I caught from this morning:

Sometimes in the sunlight, sometimes in the shadows,
Walking all the day, all along the way.
Sometimes in the sunlight, sometimes in the shadows,
Walking with Jesus alone.

posted @ 13:28

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