In the past month or so I've had four friends give birth to new little blessings to their family. It's wonderful to see God growing His nation here on earth! For us it's been a time of questioning again as to whether or not we'd like to add to our family of four. The discussion continues to have no conclusion, but while we wait for a decision we're getting a little taste of what it would be like.
Unfortunately xenophobia is a whispered threat on our doorstep again. With the World Cup coming to an end people started feeling threatened about the availability of work and so threats were made towards our Zimbabwean maid and her community. Charity and her husband have a one year old daughter. It is not unusual for Zimbabweans to work and live here and have their children live at home in Zimbabwe with grandparents. I've had other maids before who have left their children behind because it is a better environment for their children. Sound crazy? Isn't Zimbabwe in the media often for their political problems?
Reality check! We live in South Africa, where although we've come a long way towards freedom for all, there is still poverty and lack of employment. And so having a little baby to protect, Charity and her husband debated whether or not to take her back home. For Charity this would have meant being left on her own while her husband took their daughter and not knowing when they'd come back. As she was the only one with work she would stay behind. But how does one afford the costs of journeying home on the salary of a domestic?
My first reaction was anger! Why couldn't they stay? Hadn't they come here to seek asylum from their own country? Couldn't we as South Africans see that threatening them with violence was just what we had fought so hard to change in our country? We wanted equality-didn't that mean for all? Then I realised that I was talking from a priviledged perspective still. After all I'm not the one living in a shack with no work trying to feed my family. So we were left with what our hearts felt was the only option.
For a while I had been asking Ray if he would consider having Charity and her family live on our property. God has His ways of preparing us. We both need time to make decisions and this made it easier to make it quickly-something we needed to do as time was limited.
And so now we have this precious little girl and her family to play and live and learn with.....
Before the World Cup started there was much debate as to whether or not it would be a good thing for our country. Yes, this may sound like bad news, but I'm still choosing to live in hope that the Lord can use even this for His good!
So far there has been little news of anything serious happening. Although many Zimbabweans have packed up and left there are still some who have chosen to stay.
So while we wait patiently we're enjoying the sound of little feet again!
