Everywhere we go there are children. Marvelous, wonderful children who are full of life and energy. Today we visited the Capricorn settlement. It is a community of more than thirty thousand people living in what are called Mandela homes, one room concrete block houses. Living Hope has a children's club there that meets each Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.
The children started showing up around 3:00 and we began by standing around outside with them singing us songs in Afrikaans, a language of South Africa. After some spirited singing and dancing we moved into the shipping container that houses the children's club. Shipping containers are often reclaimed, painted inside and out and made into very sturdy and useful buildings. There were probably about forty children and the twenty three from our team crowded into the shipping container. As the children sang at the top of their lungs and beat the sides of the container for rhythm, we felt as if we were inside a big metal drum.
We sang for almost thirty minutes, songs in English and in Afrikaans. Finally, the students led the chidren in singing a few songs and talked with them about making good choices when pressured by peers. There was plenty of laughter, some questions, and a lot of hugs going all around. We chased the children outside to line them up for their sandwiches and they obediently filed their way back inside, girls first, to receive their sandwich and glass of juice.
Finally, amid all the laughter and chatter that comes from that many children in a small enclosed space, the leader, Roger, played a game to get the children to freeze and to become absolutely quiet. Out of the silence came a powerful voice. At first none of us could see Basil singing, but out of the crowd of children came Steven Curtis Chapman's song, His Strength. The children moved aside a bit and we could see a slight twelve-year-old boy seated and singing:
His strength is perfect when our strength is gone;
He'll carry us when we can't carry on.
Raised in His power, the weak become strong;
His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect.
In a neighborhood of extreme poverty, among children with so little, the words were powerful. We are reminded that everything we are doing here is designed to help children have hope, to make good choices, and to believe there is a future. Basil is one child half way around the world from Belmont, but he and all his fellow South African children are important. We're learning that in new ways everyday and that is changing us. Stay tuned.