1 year

This week has been one of those weeks where we have all just taken account of this last year. We reached our one year in South Africa yesterday! Wow! It is amazing to me that we have actually been here a full year.

Here are a couple of my thoughts. It feels like yesterday we were called and started praying about going. God provided in such huge ways and confirmed His call at every turn. I still cant believe we sold/gave away everything we owned. It's a long time to be away from family, sure wish they would consider visiting. Humbled that for an entire year friends, family and our precious church have supported us! Humbled even more that you are still supporting us!

How life has changed: We just had a baby... never thought that would happen. Really happy we just had a baby, she sure is cute! My whole family is in love with Kommetjie, South Africa. We moved to Durban and then to Cape Town. God has led us in all sorts of directions we weren't expecting. God has blown us away by following His will and not ours. People have been saved, clothed and fed because the Lord chose to use the week and foolish things in the World (us). We have learned that we dont need what we thought we need, we have also learned to live with much less and be perfectly happy with that. We are still expectant that God has big things and little things on the horizon and excited He still wants to use us! We have met some really wonderful people that we would have never met before. We have seen poverty!!! Real poverty!!! We have seen hungry people!!! Real hungry people!!! We have seen disease and death!!! We have seen neglected children!!! We pray a lot more than we used too! We love each other more than we used to and hug and kiss each other more! We have served as a family and that is priceless!

Totally thankful for the Lord for taking us on this wild ride. He is so good. I would encourage you to listen to His call for you, and to follow it wholeheartedly even if it doesn't make sense to others. It is not about what people want from you but what the Lord desires of you. Go and make disciples my friends!!! You will not be disappointed.

Blessings,

Andrea

Turkey and Johnny Cash

Here in Cape Town I am working with a group of young adult men and women through a group called LifeXchange.  I will speak more on the group at a later stage.  Most of the guys that we work with come from an area called Ocean View.  They come from a wide variety of back grounds; orphans, homeless, gangsters, drug dealers, etc., etc.

So what I have I been doing at LifeXchange.  I have been working on some curriculum for the guys to do as part of their requirements to be in LifeXchange.  These "assignments" serve many different purposes.  First and foremost, they are great topic and discussion starters for the mentors to do with mentees.  Second, it something productive that we can have the guys do when they come into the office.  Thirdly it is exposing them to new thoughts, ideas, and possible job/career possibilities that might otherwise never knew existed.  It based primarily on my experiences in Scouting although we are also working in some spiritual disciplines as well.

Enter Collin, aka Turkey.  I have met turkey before on one occasion, but today I was to pick him and several other guys up and take them to Cobus' (founder of LifeXchange) house to work on some things.  Collin lives in a Wendy house all by himself.  A Wendy house is basically a small to medium sized shed that you would see at Lowe's or Home Depot, just with some windows and a proper door.  Not sure about electricity, but I am 99% sure there is not water.  People with houses will let you put up a Wendy house in their yards and then charge rent for the space and electricity (which I am 99% sure consist of an electric cord running out the door into the Wendy house).  I will confirm my suspicions at a later date and maybe take some photos if I can get Turkey to give me the tour.

When we arrive at Cobus' house he says he wants me to try out some of my assignments with Turkey.  Turkey dropped out of school after grade 7.  His reading is not so good.  I had him look at my list of assignments and he picked 3; video games, photography, and music.  We did photography and music.  It probably took about an hour to do both.  There were only 3 questions or so on each sheet, but we read them together and discussed.  We listened to some music together as part of the home work.  I introduced him to Johnny Cash, which he had never heard of.  He also had to sing a song with more than two verses which his friends and Cobus helped out with.  They sang what I guess you would classify as a gospel song.  I will try to get a copy of the video.  It was great.  Part of the photography homework was to take 10 pictures, which he did and talked about them numerous times on the way home.

I got home and had an email from Cobus.  He said that Turkey was a test and if the assignments can work with him they can work with any of the guys in LifeXchange as he has the lowest grade of school completed and has had pretty extensive drug abuse in the past.

So we will continue to tweak the program, but the trial run seemed to go well.

Shelby

what could you do with 100,000 a year

Yesterday we had to go looking for one of our lifexchange members who didn't pitch (show) for an a meeting.  I drove with the founder, Cobus  Oosthuizen, into Ocean View to see if we could locate him.  I have been into Ocean View numerous time, but never venturing out of my car much. Usually it was just to drop off someone, or to pick them up.  First we went to his home and he wasn't there, then Cobus tells me we are going to go to the "bad" area, the one he doesn't even like to go to.  There is a man on the corner.  Much of the conversation was in Afrikaans so I don't understand, but Cobus told me later in the car.  This man was one of the high up in the drug world here in ocean view, if not the highest up.  He had a wad of cash.  Cobus asked how much he made a day and the guy said R7000-8000  (over a $1000).  Cobus said profit and the guy said no, probably around R2800 profit ($400) a day.  WHAT, do that math, if he doesn't take a day off thats almost $150,000 a year.  Cobus said wow that's more than I make, but I have a house, a car, a bank account.  The guy said he can't do all that because too many people would notice.  So he gives some to family to keep and then just spends the rest.  Over a $100000 a year and nothing to show for it.


Now understand why it is so difficult to pull these guys out of Ocean View.  Why would they want to go get an education and make R1500-2000 ($200-$300) a month working 8 hours a day, when guys like this make R2800 ($400) a day and never even leave their house.

What follows is a bit of an overview of Ocean View.  Ocean View is one of the 3 townships located within 20 minutes of our house and is also the closest one.  80% of the kids that are members of lifexchange are living here.  The group open door that feeds 30-40 kids everyday is also located here.

Ocean View

 Located about forty five miles from Cape Town, Ocean View township was formed in the late 1960’s to 1970’s during the Group Areas Act; all coloured people were forcefully relocated from the ‘white communities’ of Simon’s Town, Fish Hoek and Noordhoek to this settlement. It was ironically named Ocean View, with residents being removed from their previous sea-side homes and views. As a result, its history is embedded in apartheid, and there is still much bitter resentment among many people. The coloured people of Ocean View originate from the Khoi-San group, and so have a unique, separate heritage from black South Africans.

Today there are close to 30,000 people who live in Ocean View in brick houses and apartments. Consequently, because housing is not such a concern in this township, they face many other problems. Life is a struggle for the many residents here, having to face the challenges of huge unemployment, widespread drug use, alcoholism, gangs, prostitution and violence. Thousands of lives are being destroyed by the local drug culture, where a drug calledtik (crystal meth) is being sold for as little as R5 (less than $1). Many children are embroiled in this drug, with the issue affecting all ages and generations within society. Gangs and violence stem from the drug problem; Ocean View has a high rate of crime and gangs are a main source of violence in the township as they attempt to manage the drug trade and prostitution industry.

For decades the coloured community has been caught stranded between the whites and the blacks, and so has been neglected for years. Some claim to have been ‘not white enough’ during apartheid and ‘not black enough’ now, and as a result many still feel abandoned with no hope or ambition for the future. This attitude is a major cause for the struggles Ocean View faces. Youths and adults alike lack hope and aims for improving their lives by getting an education or working, and so problems such as unemployment swell. People turn to other sources of income such as crime, drugs and prostitution just to make ends meet. HIV is also a problem; there is a lot of stigma attached to it and so it is not discussed openly. The estimate for infection rate is about 8-13%, but is hard to gauge because of the unwillingness of people to talk about it.

Ocean View has a number of facilities but is still extremely ill-equipped for the needs of the community; currently these include a number of schools, a library, community centre, clinic and a range of small shops. There are almost 200 churches and church groups within Ocean View but these are limited in effectiveness by division and factions, and many live a Sunday-life focused on rules, and a week-life where they behave as they wish. The main language spoken within the township is Afrikaans, but most also speak English.

Although Ocean View is a community ravaged by social problems, some residents are beginning to stand up and fulfill the potential that has been suppressed for decades.

Little almost Ceasar's (not Pizza)

Today is the day that we finally met Finley Benton Grace Render.  Its been a long time coming but she is here now, and momma and baby are both doing good.  For some of you that's all you need to know, others may desire a little more detail because like everything else in the Render family, Finley's arrival is just another part of the adventure that is life here in South Africa.  For you, Andrea has asked me to retell the story.
Friday, September 2nd, started out like just another Friday.  We were all greatly anticpating Finley's arrival and wondered if this would be the day.  I made it to a staff meeting in the morning, but other than that tried to stay close to home.  Took care of some small maintance at the church and then headed to youth around 5.  Andrea was having some contractions, but she had said that everyday for a week or more now, so didn't think much about it.  She got a message to me about 9:30 PM that she was having contactions for a few hours and that they were now about 5 mins apart and asked me to come home.  We made contact with the midwife and she said to get in the bath and see if that slowed anything down.  It did not, by about 11:30 or so the midwife had made it to the house.  Andrea was progressing well 3 cm, at 5 cm they decided to break her water at about 2:30 AM.  The midwife told me that if she wasn't pushing by 4:30 there would be reason for concern.  Let me insert here that I guess there was a little concern on all our parts just because of age, the normal size of our babies, the fact that we were overdue, and it had been 9 years since her body last did this.  So there was a little worry and probably even a little fear.  OK so I felt like the midwife was just prepping me in case something happened later.  By around 5 o'clock her contractions stalled.  They didn't go away, just slowed down and became a little less intense.  The midwife encouraged to rest awhile and that we would give it an hour and see where we were.  Sandy (our Midwife) showed me the chart of Andrea's file and it said by 6:00 she should be 10 cm or else there is a problem and we need to go to hospital.  She checked at 6:30 and Andrea was stalled at 8 cm and Finleys head had still not dropped to were it needed to be.
We were not anticipating a trip to the hospital, but we did have to have a back up plan for our midwife.  There is free government health care here, but anyone and everyone who can should stay far away.  So for our back up plan we choose a govenment ran maternity hospital about 30 minutes away, it was cheap and it was the closest one.    We had made 2 trips prior to this one, just to get set up and registered incase we needed to come back.  We had been less than a week ago just to get a scan for Finley and make sure she was ok.
So, we were not even packed for this trip, so we quickly packed a bag for mommy and baby.  Sandy said there was something keeping Finley from dropping, could be she had a big head and just needed a little more time and some better contractions to force her down.  So the plan was to go to hospital, take some medicine that would cause some stronger contractions and see if that would be enough to force Finley down, and if not than we would Ceasar (C-section) by lunch.
Meanwhile Andrea's contractions are picking up again every 3-4 minutes and they are goodies.  She's trying to pack, I am packing for Finley, figuring out the kids, etc, etc. its close to 7AM now and we've all been up all night.  Andrea and I would drive and meet the midwife there.  Aunty Lou takes the other kids and we head out.  So now Andrea is having hum dinger contractions in the car and not a happy camper at all.  At some point I don't know exactly when, but she knew something was wrong.  She was screaming and crying out to God to get her through this and watching every minute click off the clock as we drove.  7:31 we arrive at the hospital.  I run in and get a wheel chair, come out get Andrea in.  Wheel her in side and the security guy says sorry no wheelchairs for moms in labor in case the give birth in chair she will have to walk.  Nice.  I park the car walk back in and we head up to the delivery rooms.  I don't really know how to describe these hospitals or even comare them to anything at home.  They are old buildings in pretty bad shape.  Bad paint job, bad maintance, bad smells, etc.  The trip prior when we went for a scan one whole hallway smelled like a butcher shop to me.  Not good for a hospital.
We get to the delivery room and Sandy is there making up the bed.  Andreas has passed transition and have serious contractions and a lot of pain.  Luckily there were lots of screaming women there.  You pass through a set of double doors with cloudy circle windows in each door.  Looks like the face of a robot.  Each delivery ward had a set of these doors off the main hallway, but once through the double doors you could look right or left into the delivery rooms on either side.  It was like an old ER.  Nurses passed though non stop with just a curtain between us and them, which was usually left open most of the time.  I noticed immediatley blood spots on the floor.  Not like old spots that would come out, but recent spots that just had not been cleaned.  Nice, hopefully Andrea didn't see that.  Now she has a urge to push.  Sandy is gone trying to find a doctor and our file.  The nurse tells her not to push while she straps(literally two large velco straps) two heart beat monitors to Andrea's belly.  Hlfe dressed half not, exposed to all who walk by the other side of the curtain (andrea, not me).  She knows something wrong and wants the Ceasar now or needs something to keep from pushing.  Sandy comes back and I say listen forget the natural birth, lets do the ceasar now.  She says the theater (operating room) is backed up for at least an hour maybe three and cant find a doctor to see her to give medicine.  Andrea says she needs to push, Sandy says then push as we quickly try to get off whats remaining of her clothes in preparation.  We put her in a gown that in a million years old and stained Andrea would have never put on if she had noticed or cared at all.  Much like the floor there were stains of previous people who wore this gown.  At the time it didn't matter.  Andrea wasted no time and got to the business of getting this baby out.  Sandy checked out Andrea and said Finley had dropped and was coming out right here right now.  One or two contactions later I could see the head.  From crowning to head out was one contraction.  Sandy was quite, too quite.  I could see the back of Finleys head and she was purple, too purple.  Andrea asked what was wrong and I said nothing keep pushing.  Sandy worked frantic to get her out and with one more contraction she was out.  Laying there on the bed in a ball, face down.  Sandy is screaming for help.  There is a moment that passes.  I don't even check to see if its a for sure a girl, is she alive is she moving anything.  No sound....Time stops, stands still.....Brown water, blood everywhere, marconioum.  Still purple. It's been 9 years, I struggle to remember whats normal.  Sandy is screaming for suction, finally a nurse comes and gets that going.  I keep watching.  Something, anything....finally I see her little fingers straighten and then make a fist again.  Signs of life. Breathe.  Suction.....Andrea is asking for her, Sandy says wait.  More suction.  Finally, small sounds, gurggling almost.  Still purple, but starting to fade.  A sigh of relief.  Baby is ok, place her on mom, starting to get pink, little more noise. Clamp the cord....cut....Group of 8 doctors peak in during rounds.  Sandy gives them the low down

 (above, one eye on momma, below, one eye on daddy)



Sandy tells us that in addition to the marconium in the plecenta (not good) she was so wrapped up in the cord that that was what was keeping her from dropping during labor.  She was literally bungie jumping with the cord.  The contractions would push her down, and the cord would pull her back up.  Something in the car ride gave her enough cord to finally drop, but also caused her to become strangled on delivery.  Which as bad as it sounds actually helped.  Had she come out and opened her mouth to inhale she would have inhaled the marconium which is very very bad.  But the cord that caused her not to breathe also gave Sandy time to suction out all the marconium from her mouth and nose before she inhaled.  In same fashion as her big sister, she likes to have her hand up near her face, which is cute for pictures, but not for delivery.
Andrea says did anyone check to make sure she was a girl and Sandy double check and say yes.  We all gestimate a time of delivery at 7:55.  I say guess because when Andrea asked what time she was born.  Sandy and I looked at each other, looked at the clock, it said 8:10, so we guessed about 7:55. Just for perspective of time we arrived at the hospital parking lot at 7:31 and had Finley 24 mins later.  By 8:30 or so I think we were walking out the front door, before they came and admited us and therefore charged us.  So no addmition, no charge.  The security tags on momma and baby were hand written.  We phone the kids tell them not to come the hospital, Finley is born and we are on our way home.
Great job Sandy, great job Tootsie (Andrea) , welcome home Finny Bean

(on the scale.3.680 kg or 8.11 lbs, our smallest baby)

Here are a few picks I grabbed while at the hospital.  Pretty rushed, but i tried to capture the moment once we figured out eveything was ok.  Notice the hand. Thats how she came out.

I don't exactly know why this could not have taken place at home.  We literally drove 30 minutes, delivered, and drove home.  God knows and had a plan and a purpose and He is good all the time and Finley is here. So, the End

(above in the warmer for a couple of minutes.)
(left blood and sheets on floor from previous patients)



Thanks so much for your prayers.  This is the story from my side of the belly.  Now maybe Andrea can tell hers from her side of the belly.

Blessings
Shelby

PS I don't like to write and hate to proof read and edit so sorry for any mistakes; spelling, grammar, etc.