Five people from the Kleipot community visited David in Venda.  It was an action-packed weekend filled with very humbling experiences.  Spending time with poor people is a stretch.  It exposes the heart for its clinging to luxuries and shows how our richness sometimes turn to poison.  Living with poor people that give proportionately so much more, and with a thankful heart, is a leveling process.
The five of us lived with Charlotte – a woman in her fifties (cooking at the stove).  She opened her home to us, and literally slept on the floor to create a space for us.  Charlotte lost her husband in 1992 when he went to a witchdoctor. He had a sour stomach and asked the sangoma for help.
The medicine killed him that same day.  Charlotte was left with nothing but a broken heart.  She found refuge in God, and over the next few years built her house WITH HER OWN HANDS!
When we met her, she gave us hugs and told us that her house was ours.  She shared how she hosted nine women the previous week!  Charlotte dissappeared to the kitchen where she started cooking us a meal.  This precious woman is one of those servants who are never in the front of a congregation, yet she conquers darkness with her unassuming spirit.

In one of the corners of her house stand a stack of tupperware boxes.  One morning we asked Charlotte what they were for.  She explained that when her husband died, she was left with nothing – not even cutlery.  So for the last few years, she collected cutlery.  When someone in her community dies, she delivers the box that very same night to the surviving family.  This woman is ready to do good works! 
Over this next week I plan to unpack some of our further experiences.  Let me end by saying that we serve a God of amazing diversity.  A Father with children all over the globe; a Father who finds pleasure in connecting families from different races …