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April 2002
Dear Friends,
Greetings again from Lesotho. Summer has officially come to an
end here, and though the weather is still quite pleasant, the
days are shortening as we move into autumn and toward our first
Lesotho winter.
Bob has slowly been making progress in his work. By bringing
together several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and church
groups we hope to have a Joining Hands Against Hunger (JHAH) network
that can be a catalyst for change on a national level and speak
to the power structures that too rarely hear from (or will listen
to) the poor.
In Lesotho, our network core team has been formed and is planning
a conference with 30 to 40 participants in May. At that time the
attendees will be invited to form a Joining Hands Network and
to determine what type of campaign focus they wish to have.
In South Africa, we recently held such a conference in the Eastern
Cape Province. The South African networks are joining forces with
other groups that are pushing for a national program called the
Basic Income Grant, which is a proposed government welfare program
that would provide a grant of 100 rands (about nine dollars) per
month to each man, woman, and child in the country. This small
amount would double the income of some of the poorest families,
thus giving them the means to buy food, while middle- and upper-income
families would pay this back in their taxes. It’s rather
innovative in that it does not require means-testing to see who
qualifies and who doesn’t. The JHAH networks decided to promote
the Basic Income Grant in recognition of the reality that even
if all the income generation projects and job skills training
efforts in South Africa were successful, there would still be
severe unemployment and poverty.
The Lesotho JHAH network could decide on a similar campaign,
or they could focus on any of numerous other issues, such as money
lending, resettlement of displaced people, or issues of HIV/AIDS-related
poverty.
Samantha has begun working at the library for the Morija Theological
Seminary, located in the town of Morija, about 30 miles south
of the city of Maseru where we live. The library serves a community
of four faculty members and just over 50 students (comprised of
about 25 students from the seminary and about 30 students from
a small Bible school, both part of the Lesotho Evangelical Church).
The library is in relatively good shape due to the work of volunteer
staff from the U.S. and Europe over the past couple of years.
Samantha is encouraged by the faculty’s commitment to their
students, but she is somewhat discouraged to see that the library
collection appears to be underutilized and by the seeming reliance
on the part of seminary staff to have Westerners run and maintain
the library. Please pray that God may provide a local person that
would run the library once Samantha has returned to North America.
Please also pray that more faculty members would be found to help
ease the teaching load of those currently there.
Like many places in the developing world, Maseru is a city where
ancient ways of life come into contact with the modern. One example
that we see almost every day is livestock along the roads and
roadsides. There are a lot of "herdboys" here in Lesotho,
tending herds of cattle and goats and flocks of sheep.
We recently heard an excellent sermon based on the parable of
the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7). I have often heard that parable,
but until this telling I had only focused on the part of the parable
in which the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to go find the lost
one. But there were 100 sheep. How would the shepherd even know
there was one missing?
The speaker told us that a group of Basotho pastors attending
a workshop recently were studying this parable and were asked
if any of them had ever been a herdboy. One man said that yes,
he had tended his family’s sheep as a youngster. He was then
asked, "Is it possible to keep track of 100 sheep?"
The pastor replied, "Yes, that’s possible. One hundred
is not too many." "How would you keep track of them?
Would you count them?" "No, you can’t count sheep
because they’re always moving around. But each sheep is different.
I would know if a certain one was likely to wander off, so I’d
pay more attention to that one." "Would you know if
one sheep was missing?" "Yes, I would know."
It isn’t often that we are able to get a fresh first-hand
perspective on an event or scenario of 2000 years ago. As I listened
to this sermon I was also thinking of this parable as a metaphor
for Lesotho and how, relative to all the countries of the world,
this little country of two million people is fairly insignificant.
Lesotho rarely gets noticed by CNN (thankfully). But like the
one sheep, God keeps it in His sight. It is important and valuable
to Him. He knows its nature, and He keeps a special watch that
it doesn’t wander off. And if it gets lost, He’ll go
find it.
As we reflect on Easter, we remember that Christ died for the
sins of the whole world; no individual or country is insignificant
to Him, so no individual or group should be seen as insignificant
to us, either. No country, no town, no village, no person is too
insignificant to be loved by God.
Yours in the risen Lord,
Bob & Samantha
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