Teresa (one of our mission trip members) asked to write about my experience in South Africa just like the others before me have written. I am one of ten people who went on the church mission trip to Cape Town South Africa. I have been putting this off and trying to put it out of my mind since we all returned in mid July of last year.
I only started a new paragraph because I was tired of looking at my blinking cursor for so long after the last sentence above. It is not that I can't remember anything to write, it is because I don't want to remember. If I could describe to you what I saw, felt and witnessed, and you would really be able to see, feel and hear how I experienced the trip - you would not want to know. Being born and raised in the Chicago-land area and working twenty one years in Law Enforcement in South Florida, I saw my share of poverty, sickness, alcohol and drug abuse, HOWEVER nothing like what I experienced there. We went to an orphanage where 18 of the 21 children are HIV positive, most of them purposely abandoned by their parents. That is not what I am going to focus on in this letter. As a matter of fact, it was only until Corina (my youngest daughter who is our missionary to Cape Town) spoke last month at church while she was home for the Christmas Season, that I realized the most important thing about the trip.
When Corina stood in front of the congregation she thanked them for not ONLY being the sole church family she had ever known, and not ONLY for supporting her financially and providing a college education at a Baptist Seminary, but Corina thanked them, "for the opportunity to work side-by-side in ministry with my father." When she spoke those words Corina was looking right at me. I began to cry as I am now realizing I have done something most christian parents will never do!
A month earlier I wrote to the Pastor that I was thankful for him and his staff for giving me the honor of teaching and speaking at the church. I wrote that it was the most fulfilling service I have ever done. I was WRONG. The most important and fulfilling service I have ever had the Grace Filled Privilege of being allowed to partake in was working side-by-side with Corina in God's work! God not only allowed me to do a small piece of His work, but performed a work in me by doing it. I took several months of trying to forget what happened only to be shown what really happened. Now I pray I never forget...Blessings
ernie
