from our beautiful sister Maura Rehfuss, spreading our Light in South Africa...
Today, Monday, July 20th is Curtis and my 30th wedding anniversary. Hallmark lists the 30th Anniversary gift as ‘pearl’. And it brings to mind the story in the bible of the one who sells all he has to purchase ‘a pearl of great price’. The pearl of great price, for me, is a deepening awareness of Spirit. God moving in the midst of every circumstance and as every one who crosses my path. Thank you Curtis. I could not ask for a better husband or a better gift.
This week will be another busy one. We are back in the garden preparing the space for a gardening workshop on site this coming Friday morning. Our friends from the Novalis Ubuntu Institute will be bringing 7 bags of compost and will train participants in rotating crops and year-round gardening. We went to the local grain elevator this afternoon, gathered empty grain bags and filled them with dried grass clippings from the B & B where we are staying. We will use these in the garden as well. The neighborhood boys were back in full force to help with clearing the space to ready it for Friday’s workshop. Fence post and barbed wire has been purchased to enclose the yard to keep the many dogs in the neighborhood out.
This evening John and and his mom, Leitie, have prepared a traditional African dinner for us in their home. It includes chicken, sausage, fish, sweet and white potatoes, vegetable pie and homemade bread. On Thursday evening we will return the favor with a traditional American dinner of meatloaf, corn on the cob, salad, sweet and white potatoes. Apple tarts and vanilla ice cream.
A group of interns from the Foundation for Contemporary Research drove from Capetown to RSE to meet with John and members of the RSE community to discuss effective fundraising for the Community Center Project. Robin and I attended and it was a very interesting morning as we had an opportunity to break into small groups and hear the citizens’ visions.
One of Leitie’s nieces invited us to the neighborhood Clinic. Theolene (Lena) works there and she was eager to show us the facility and introduce us to the staff. Each day of the week a different segment of the population is seen. On Monday the chronically ill are treated. On Tuesday pregnant women are seen. Today, Wednesday, is children’s day.
I brought some of the friendship bracelets for the children, the adults who accompany them and for the staff. It is difficult to adequately describe the difference this tiny, pink walled, space and these few angels are making in the lives of this community. There is a high incidence of TB here and often the initial blood work-up is the first indication that the patient is HIV positive as well. Treating both diseases in a patient is a very complicated issue. And once TB has been diagnosed its highly contagious nature requires that each member of the household be treated. The high incidence of alcohol/drug addiction further compromises the health of those being treated. HIV infected patients receive a 30 day supply of antiretroviral drugs at one time. The youngest HIV infected patient treated at the clinic is 8 months old.
Robin and I met wit a small group of women at the Community Hall this morning to teach/practice Light Touch. The grandmothers (GoGo’s) share it with each other and their grandchildren, some of whom are HIV infected. The women are also experiencing stress reduction while treating themselves. We spent a wonderful few hours together and when we left they blew us kisses as they walked back to their homes in the settlement.
We are heading over to Robben Island today with two of the young women who are being supported by The Light Center since leaving the orphanage system. They have never seen the place where Nelson Mandela spent many of his 27 years of imprisonment and I know it will be an emotional time for all.
Yesterday we left RSE to return to Capetown and Novalis. The women of the community presented us with a crocheted gift and a handwritten prayer in English. We burst into tears and so did they. These strong resourceful women have profoundly toughed my heart and I am changed forever.
We will be returning to America in a two days and I look forward to being with each of you. Know that your ongoing support of UCOH’s Inreach and Outreach Programs, including Robin Goff and The Light Center, is making a profound impact in the neighborhood and around the world.
Robin has been asked to do the Sunday morning service for Agape South Africa tomorrow morning and I will be participating. What a wonderful opportunity to share UCOH’s message of unconditional love and reconciliation.
Sending love and light,
(I am the mirror/reflection of yours)
Maura
Monday, July 27, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Global Grace II from South Africa
writing by Maura Rehfuss, on her visit to South Africa...
link to photos from the field: http://picasaweb.google.com/NovalisUbuntu/SobonfuCapeTownVisitJuly2009?feat=email#
I am learning to ‘save’ this file after every couple of sentences since power surges are the norm and I have spent some minutes typing the same sentence multiple times. Ha.
We are also not finding online opportunities as easily as hoped. I will write this and leave it in a Word Doc until I can send it off.
We are spending 9 days in Reviersonderend (RSE) population 5500, a rural community 160km (2hours) outside of Capetown. It is here that we will be gifting a group of grandmothers with our beautiful quilting supplies knitting and crocheting needles and yarn…
The matriarch of this community is named Leitie. She is a strong grandmother and it is clear why she is a force for good in these parts. She is another one of my heroes.
We are sitting on Leitie’s porch. Each of us is working our ‘knitting sticks’ to produce leg warmers for the sick and elderly. Because there is no way to warm the homes everyone wears winter attire (coats and hats) inside and these leg warmers (worn between the ankle and knee) will provide another layer of warmth. Everyone who passes by says, “Good Mora”, or “Kyweir Mora” which means, “Good Morning” in Afrikan. They speak it with a beautiful lilt and I think they are saying “Good Maura” to me. J
Our needles are clicking and we are listening to the details of the incredibly hard lives these grandmothers (GoGo’s) are living. Leitie’s husband of 45 years died last month and tears well up as she remembers how much he did for her and how much she loved him, loves him still. She shows me a photo taken during happier times.
They raised 9 grown children and she has a houseful of children now who call her ‘Oma’. They stay because they do not have parents who can care for them anymore due to HIV/AIDS, alcohol or other drug addictions. 52% of the adult population is unemployed and the entire community experiences depression and desperation.
Leitie’s son, John, has returned to his hometown to build a community center. He has received all of the permits necessary (it has taken years) and is now meeting with the architect and others who will play pivotal roles in the construction (sandbag) and vision for a center including a theatre, restaurant and cooking school. He wants this project to be a model in green building for the area and has found people at the University, two hours away, who have some wonderful ideas and are excited to assist. He is hoping that people will come great distances to see what he has done in RSE. He is interviewing folks proficient in fundraising. John is very well respected in the area and when we are with him in the street people come to say how much they love him. Many volunteers will be required to finance, build, and maintain the vision and Robin is hoping we will send special ones from America to assist. The Light Center is committed to helping in any way we can.
Leitie’s neighbor, across the street, is named Sari and she is very old now but was an avid gardener much of her life. She can no longer garden but has offered her yard to Leitie to be used as a garden for the neighborhood. Robin and I spent yesterday with several of the young (ages7-10) neighborhood kids clearing a small space in the left corner behind Sari’s house so she can have a raised bed to plant her own seeds and harvest her own vegetables. It will be a surprise for her. We are mindful to gingerly remove barbed wire remnants, the preferred fencing material around the houses in the neighborhood. John will need to fence in Sari’s yard to keep the dogs out of the garden. We are also removing trash as we go. The weeds which cover her entire yard are actually shamrocks (oxalis) so I am working in a sea of clover, with beautiful yellow blossoms, as we make way for the garden. We crafted the raised bed in a U shape and purchased a plastic garden chair Sari can sit on. From the chair she can reach all the way around…The soil is rich river bottom soil but it contains hundreds of rocks. The rocks hold their own beauty and we pile them as the border of the U shape with the children excited to see what they are accomplishing.
We have had John tell them in Afrikan that the larger garden area will be for the neighborhood and he will need their help to maintain it. They are learning English in school and speak it to us when they can. We ask them what they would hope to plant in the garden. They say the first thing they want to plant is a tree that will provide shade for Sari. Then they want to plant…cucumbers, carrots, chard, radishes, melons and tomatoes…They are all speaking at once and their faces light up as they can already taste their fresh produce. Children here never turn down anything to eat. They have their favorite foods, mostly sweet of course, but since many of them can not be sure where they will find their next meal they are happy to clean any plate set before them.
When they speak to each other they use their Afrikan dialect but as we work we are hearing Michael Jackson’s voice, coming from a radio, wafting through the open window from one of the adjacent houses. And the boys begin to sing in English with Michael, “Billy Jean that’s my lover” and “It doesn’t matter if your black or white”. The sun beats down now and Robin and I are shedding the layers of sweaters that have been leant to us by friends in Capetown to keep us warm during the frigid morning temps experienced since climate change.
One of the small boys, Clayton, age 7, suddenly is next to me. Leitie has sent him to the garden with oranges, rolled in the hem of his t-shirt, for the volunteers. He offers me the biggest one. He notices that my borrowed, oversized gardening gloves have pulled away from my wrists and he pulls them back up to keep my $5 watch out of harm’s way. My time here is filled with hundreds of similarly sweet moments and I cannot adequately describe the loving spirit that is so evident in everyone I meet.
The hours pass quickly. Robin bought, cooked and cut into pieces, a large butternut squash from an organic farmer’s market in Capetown and brought it with us to Leitie’s house. One of Leities’s sisters prepares a wonderful soup for lunch.
On July 18th the country celebrated the 91st birthday of Nelson Mandela. The citizens were asked to spend 67 minutes doing something to honor the 67 years he has been politically involved in the struggle for equality (freedom) for all people. John has organized a day of celebration with us. We gather the neighborhood kids and head over to the overgrown path the children use everyday to walk to school. We spent the day clearing the path. We stack the cuttings high and as we do the children begin to climb under the large leafy branches to hide. I will never forget the sound of their laughter as they piled branch upon branch and then dove under the pile only to pop their heads out, to surprise me, as I came past with more cuttings.
We have been told that the older children use this same area to drink alcohol, smoke pot or sniff glue and I am wanting to surround the space with a loving intention that all who use this path will find comfort, support and courage that allows them to know the gifts they have been given to bless this community and the world.
John brought a large cast iron three-legged pot with lid and filled it with potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers and chicken. The children brought dry wood and kept the fire burning as the delicious stew cooked. After many hours the path was clear and we feasted in the open air. It was the perfect way to honor former President Mandela (TaTa Mandiba) and to mirror the point of love he is in the world.
My time here continues to be ‘blessing upon blessing’ for me. Know how keenly your presence is felt. There is only ONE of us here.
Love and Light to all,
Maura
link to photos from the field: http://picasaweb.google.com/NovalisUbuntu/SobonfuCapeTownVisitJuly2009?feat=email#
I am learning to ‘save’ this file after every couple of sentences since power surges are the norm and I have spent some minutes typing the same sentence multiple times. Ha.
We are also not finding online opportunities as easily as hoped. I will write this and leave it in a Word Doc until I can send it off.
We are spending 9 days in Reviersonderend (RSE) population 5500, a rural community 160km (2hours) outside of Capetown. It is here that we will be gifting a group of grandmothers with our beautiful quilting supplies knitting and crocheting needles and yarn…
The matriarch of this community is named Leitie. She is a strong grandmother and it is clear why she is a force for good in these parts. She is another one of my heroes.
We are sitting on Leitie’s porch. Each of us is working our ‘knitting sticks’ to produce leg warmers for the sick and elderly. Because there is no way to warm the homes everyone wears winter attire (coats and hats) inside and these leg warmers (worn between the ankle and knee) will provide another layer of warmth. Everyone who passes by says, “Good Mora”, or “Kyweir Mora” which means, “Good Morning” in Afrikan. They speak it with a beautiful lilt and I think they are saying “Good Maura” to me. J
Our needles are clicking and we are listening to the details of the incredibly hard lives these grandmothers (GoGo’s) are living. Leitie’s husband of 45 years died last month and tears well up as she remembers how much he did for her and how much she loved him, loves him still. She shows me a photo taken during happier times.
They raised 9 grown children and she has a houseful of children now who call her ‘Oma’. They stay because they do not have parents who can care for them anymore due to HIV/AIDS, alcohol or other drug addictions. 52% of the adult population is unemployed and the entire community experiences depression and desperation.
Leitie’s son, John, has returned to his hometown to build a community center. He has received all of the permits necessary (it has taken years) and is now meeting with the architect and others who will play pivotal roles in the construction (sandbag) and vision for a center including a theatre, restaurant and cooking school. He wants this project to be a model in green building for the area and has found people at the University, two hours away, who have some wonderful ideas and are excited to assist. He is hoping that people will come great distances to see what he has done in RSE. He is interviewing folks proficient in fundraising. John is very well respected in the area and when we are with him in the street people come to say how much they love him. Many volunteers will be required to finance, build, and maintain the vision and Robin is hoping we will send special ones from America to assist. The Light Center is committed to helping in any way we can.
Leitie’s neighbor, across the street, is named Sari and she is very old now but was an avid gardener much of her life. She can no longer garden but has offered her yard to Leitie to be used as a garden for the neighborhood. Robin and I spent yesterday with several of the young (ages7-10) neighborhood kids clearing a small space in the left corner behind Sari’s house so she can have a raised bed to plant her own seeds and harvest her own vegetables. It will be a surprise for her. We are mindful to gingerly remove barbed wire remnants, the preferred fencing material around the houses in the neighborhood. John will need to fence in Sari’s yard to keep the dogs out of the garden. We are also removing trash as we go. The weeds which cover her entire yard are actually shamrocks (oxalis) so I am working in a sea of clover, with beautiful yellow blossoms, as we make way for the garden. We crafted the raised bed in a U shape and purchased a plastic garden chair Sari can sit on. From the chair she can reach all the way around…The soil is rich river bottom soil but it contains hundreds of rocks. The rocks hold their own beauty and we pile them as the border of the U shape with the children excited to see what they are accomplishing.
We have had John tell them in Afrikan that the larger garden area will be for the neighborhood and he will need their help to maintain it. They are learning English in school and speak it to us when they can. We ask them what they would hope to plant in the garden. They say the first thing they want to plant is a tree that will provide shade for Sari. Then they want to plant…cucumbers, carrots, chard, radishes, melons and tomatoes…They are all speaking at once and their faces light up as they can already taste their fresh produce. Children here never turn down anything to eat. They have their favorite foods, mostly sweet of course, but since many of them can not be sure where they will find their next meal they are happy to clean any plate set before them.
When they speak to each other they use their Afrikan dialect but as we work we are hearing Michael Jackson’s voice, coming from a radio, wafting through the open window from one of the adjacent houses. And the boys begin to sing in English with Michael, “Billy Jean that’s my lover” and “It doesn’t matter if your black or white”. The sun beats down now and Robin and I are shedding the layers of sweaters that have been leant to us by friends in Capetown to keep us warm during the frigid morning temps experienced since climate change.
One of the small boys, Clayton, age 7, suddenly is next to me. Leitie has sent him to the garden with oranges, rolled in the hem of his t-shirt, for the volunteers. He offers me the biggest one. He notices that my borrowed, oversized gardening gloves have pulled away from my wrists and he pulls them back up to keep my $5 watch out of harm’s way. My time here is filled with hundreds of similarly sweet moments and I cannot adequately describe the loving spirit that is so evident in everyone I meet.
The hours pass quickly. Robin bought, cooked and cut into pieces, a large butternut squash from an organic farmer’s market in Capetown and brought it with us to Leitie’s house. One of Leities’s sisters prepares a wonderful soup for lunch.
On July 18th the country celebrated the 91st birthday of Nelson Mandela. The citizens were asked to spend 67 minutes doing something to honor the 67 years he has been politically involved in the struggle for equality (freedom) for all people. John has organized a day of celebration with us. We gather the neighborhood kids and head over to the overgrown path the children use everyday to walk to school. We spent the day clearing the path. We stack the cuttings high and as we do the children begin to climb under the large leafy branches to hide. I will never forget the sound of their laughter as they piled branch upon branch and then dove under the pile only to pop their heads out, to surprise me, as I came past with more cuttings.
We have been told that the older children use this same area to drink alcohol, smoke pot or sniff glue and I am wanting to surround the space with a loving intention that all who use this path will find comfort, support and courage that allows them to know the gifts they have been given to bless this community and the world.
John brought a large cast iron three-legged pot with lid and filled it with potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers and chicken. The children brought dry wood and kept the fire burning as the delicious stew cooked. After many hours the path was clear and we feasted in the open air. It was the perfect way to honor former President Mandela (TaTa Mandiba) and to mirror the point of love he is in the world.
My time here continues to be ‘blessing upon blessing’ for me. Know how keenly your presence is felt. There is only ONE of us here.
Love and Light to all,
Maura
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Global Grace from Maura
From our beautiful Maura Rehfuss in South Africa, shining our Light...
Finally able to send this message…and wanting you to know how keenly your presence is felt. The 34 hour trip to South Africa was filled with synchronistic moments. Many people came to our aid in ways we could not have imagined and that feeling of ‘being carried’ has continued.
We traveled last week with Sobonfu Some’ (www.Sobonfu.com) and the experience has been indescribable but I will try to find words. Gabriel Gonsalves from Agape Church in South Africa is placing photos of our time together in an online catalog that I will send when able.
Our first day in Capetown we visited a settlement (inner city) school in Gugulathu. The teenagers had prepared a welcome for Sobonfu and it included singing, dancing and poetry. (These children have been brutalized by the experiences that accompany the AIDS/TB/Cholera pandemic (i.e. loss of a cohesive family system, addictions to alcohol and other drugs, rape, and high crime).
We sat in a circle and each one shared their name, age, and what their dream was for their future. Many wished to be actors or accountants. One young man, with arms folded tight across his chest, said he had no dream. When my turn came I said that I was from America and I came to see the faces of members of my global family. I told them there was a community of people in Austin Texas who held them closely in their hearts and who shared their passion for their dreams. I told them my dream was that they would come to know the power they had to use their gifts and talents to be a positive force in their world.
During Sobonfu’s presentation she shared that in her village in Berkina Faso the children (and the community) know what their gifts are, and why they have been given them, before they are born. The community supports their individual expression and their names reflect their life’s assignment. She said that each of us is given specific gifts and talents and our community, and the world, is depending on our courage to express them. She said that we are here to support each other in living to our highest vision.
The afternoon sharing brought us to a place of deeper understanding and connection. These ones will remain in my heart forever and I hope this will be the first of many opportunities to support their dreams. Hope the group photo will reflect the hundred hugs that marked our departure. The caretaker at the school, a very wise and spiritual man, came to Robin and myself, hugged us heartily, and said he felt as if he was meeting people from the moon! He said he has never seen people that ‘looked’ like us before in Gugulathu and never heard a more powerful message. He said that something in him had been ‘healed’. I told him that from now on when he sees the moon he can imagine that there are people from America lovingly looking back.
That evening we spent in Langa, another settlement. We had dinner at a restaurant owned by a husband and wife who met in 1976 during the student uprising and subsequent strikes that marked a significant challenge to apartheid. He had been imprisoned for 3 years…Some of the men from the neighborhood formed a band and provided live entertainment and we feasted and danced-an amazing first day in Capetown.
The following day we were at the Novalis Ubuntu Institute (www.Novalis.org.za) where 38 grandmothers gathered who have lost daughters to the AIDS pandemic are now raising their grandchildren, some who are HIV infected from birth and some who are now teenagers on drugs. These women, thanks to Robin Goff and the Light Center, have formed a supportive system. We had an amazing time together which included the gifting of aprons (with affirmative prayers in the pocket from UCOH’s YOUers), knitted items in rainbow colors from Unity in North Atlanta Georgia, and lunch. After the festivities we gathered in a room and Sobonfu lead a beautiful grief ritual used in her community. It was a most powerfully emotional time and hopefully provided some relief for these angels in the world. I felt your presence (my UCOH family) in the room with us. The unconditional love was palpable. Know the difference you are making in South Africa. I would never be able to move through these days without the awareness of your love carrying me.
That evening another grief ritual was performed. It was attended by many white professionals who are stepping up to be part of the reconciliation process in South Africa. It had been scheduled from 7-10:00pm but we didn’t get back to the International Police Academy, where we are staying, until after midnight. The evening was transformative…My second day in Capetown and I am having full days! I realize I am using words like profound and transformative a lot, but that is the experience.
Driving has been beyond amazing. Robin drives and sits on the opposite side of the car and drives on the opposite side of the road. We have had some harrowing experiences already. The angels clearly protect us and the drivers on the road with us! Ha! When teenagers are learning to drive a large red ‘L’ is placed in the back window to warn other drivers. We need to find one of those signs and place it in our car!
I will likely be writing in a scattered manner until I am able to catch up on sleep. Today we went back to Langa. The settlement is a series of ‘no name’ streets and the torrential rains and bitter cold have left rain soaked dwellings, inside and out. Men are finding small amounts of wood, some are tearing down an abandoned shack to build fires in the area to try to warm themselves. The sun is shining now but the winter temps are in place. We soon are lost and stop the rental car to take a look at the map which is of no help without names on the roads. Suddenly a car sweeps past us then returns to us. Three men are in the car and the driver asks if he can help. We have been told to be wary of people who may want to take advantage of us by offering to assist us. But as the man is speaking to Robin I look over his car and notice that we have stopped directly in front of a makeshift church. A wooden cross similar to the one that hangs in our sanctuary is peeping over the fence. The driver does not understand our American English when we are asking for Ndileka and her childcare center but he says he can take us to a lady who will be able to help us. We decide to follow him through a maze of alleys. It has begun to rain. And suddenly are escort stops and we realize he has taken us to Ndileka’s to find Ndileka! She runs through the fence to hug me hard. We had had such a healing time together at Novalis a few days before. It feels as if we have known each other for a very long time. She lives in a small home and is raising 26 children that she has adopted. She also feeds more than 150 each day after school. It is the only hot meal they get. She is one of my heroes. We took the beautiful friendship bracelets, toothpaste and toothbrushes (from a dentist in Kansas), coloring books and colored pencils and crayons for the smaller children. Hoping the photos will convey the joy that your generosity of Spirit has brought to that space.
The Sunday morning service at Agape was awesome! Rev. Beckwith’s presence was felt and Rikki’s music was used. WOW! Gabriel Gonsalves is a charismatic and inspired Being who is in his perfect place to be a point of love.
Today, July 14th, we were at St. George’s Orphanage. It is Robin’s birthday and she shares a birthday with one of the girls at the center. We took knitting and crocheting supplies, oranges, granola bars, more friendship bracelets and a bouquet of flowers.
Robin and I gave knitting/crocheting lessons. Robin has been doing this for a number of years and the children remember her even though it has been a year since she was here.
We had a wonderful celebration and a couple of the girls were especially interested in touching my hair, first with their hands and then on the side of their faces. I then did the same with theirs. It provided a very sweet moment for me as we ‘bonded’ a bit in this way.
I will sign off for now. Know that this time for me is fulfilling and I know now why I had the deep desire to be here. I miss Curtis more than I can say and could not have traveled without his full support. He has been my rock for almost 30 years and I am grateful beyond words for him always. (Hope you won’t mind that personal note. Ha!)
Sending love and light to all,
Be Awake,
Be Hope,
Maura
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